A Rocky First Few Weeks
Salon,com
By Camille Paglia
2/11/2009
Feb. 11, 2009 | Money by the barrelful, by the truckload. Mountains of money,
heaped like gassy pyramids in the national dump. Scrounging
packs of politicos, snapping, snarling and sending green bills flying sky-high
as they root through the tangled mass with ragged claws. The stale hot
air filled with cries of rage, the gnashing of teeth and dark prophecies of
doom.
Yes, this grotesque scene, like a
claustrophobic circle in Dante's "Inferno," was what the
Why in the cosmos would the new
administration, smoothly sailing out of Obama's
classy inauguration, repeat the embarrassing blunders of Bill Clinton's first
term? By foolishly promising a complete overhaul of healthcare within 100 days
(and by putting his secretive, ill-prepared wife in charge of it), Clinton made
himself look naive and incompetent and set healthcare reform back for more than
15 years.
President Obama
was ill-served by his advisors (shall we thump that checkered piñata, Rahm Emanuel?), who evidently did not help him to produce a
strong, focused, coherent bill that he could have explained and defended to the
nation before it was set upon by partisan wolves. To defer to the House of
Representatives and let the bill be thrown together by cacophonous mob rule
made the president seem passive and behind the curve.
Most mainstream American voters are
undoubtedly suffering from economist fatigue these days. This one calls for tax
cuts; that one condemns them. One says we're wasting hundreds of billions of
dollars; the other claims that sum falls pathetically short. A plague on all
their houses! Surely common sense would dictate that when Congress is doling
out fat dollops of taxpayers' money, due time should be delegated for sober
consideration and debate. The administration's coercive rush toward instant
action, accompanied by apocalyptic pronouncements of imminent catastrophe, has
put its own credibility on the line.
But aside from the stimulus muddle, Obama has been off to a good start. True, I was
disappointed with the infestation of the new appointments list by
Speaking of talk radio (which I listen
to constantly), I remain incredulous that any Democrat who professes liberal
values would give a moment's thought to supporting a return of the Fairness
Doctrine to muzzle conservative shows. (My latest manifesto on this subject
appeared in my last
column.) The failure of liberals to master the vibrant medium of talk radio
remains puzzling. To reach the radio audience (whether the topic is sports,
politics or car repair), a host must have populist instincts and use the robust
common voice. Too many Democrats have become arrogant elitists, speaking down
in snide, condescending tones toward tradition-minded middle
Americans whom they stereotype as rubes and buffoons. But the bottom line is
that government surveillance of the ideological content of talk radio is a
shocking first step toward totalitarianism.
One of the nuggets I've gleaned from
several radio sources is that Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has been in
the aggressive forefront of the campaign to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, is
married to Tom Athans, who works extensively with
left-wing radio organizations and was once the executive vice-president of Air
America, the liberal radio syndicate that, despite massive publicity from major
media, has failed miserably to win a national audience. Stabenow's outrageous
conflict of interest has of course been largely ignored by the prestige press,
which should have been demanding that she recuse herself from all political
involvement with this issue.