THE UNOFFICIAL OPPOSITION

The media used to view itself as the unofficial opposition. The press was there to hold politicians feet to the fire. They were the unelected conscience of the people. That was then. This is now. The precipitous decline of media, especially the print form has led us to where not just print, but all media, embattled and almost forgotten radio, TV confronted with sugar-candy programming on cable – all are in decline. The “new” media has become the internet. But you know that already.

We like to believe that it was Obama who moved into the space of so-called “social media” to gather in voters. But it was, if you recall, Howard Dean, who made the leap from conventional media to the internet, especially to fundraise. Now, as I watch him deploring the present state of American health reform debate, I wonder what America would have been if Dean had not made that unfortunate shout for the cameras, a blood-curdling squeal that was all the mainstream politicians needed to oust this pretender. Even now, wouldn’t he have made a better Secretary of Health that governor Sebelius?

Perhaps the one “new” media intruder that has made the most difference is: the “blogger.” There are tens of thousands of us, all competing for your attention. Some have risen to great heights. Others languish unread.

If Obama can remake America with his own form of compromising gradualism, then good for him. But he has almost lost me entirely. After a year in office Guantanamo is still running (albeit on the way to closing) there are more “contractors” in Afghanistan raking in millions than there are simple soldiers raking in I.R.D.s The banks have retreated into their shell of self-preservation and speculative investment. The latest is that Goldman Sachs, a true survivor, was actually double-crossing its own customers. They were, it is alleged, selling them another even more sophisticated version of mortgage backed securities, while at the same time betting against those securities by short-selling and raking in huge profits while the original investors took it on the chin. If that’s Free Enterprise I’m Attila the Hun!

Meanwhile, as the same-old-same-old continues, the country wallows in unemployment. From the very beginning the president warned America that the last thing to recover would be employment. But who expected to hear from experts that the automotive industry was unlikely to return to pre-crash employment levels for at least another four years?!!

There used to be talk that Obama would be “transformational;” that he would not only make things better but he would create whole new programs designed for the future; that he would change the “landscape” of America.

Great, I thought. What a chance for him to start a public-private partnership to build a network of high speed rail all over America. If Eisenhower could do it in the 50s with his monumental Interstate highway system, breaking totally new ground and creating roads where none had been before, why can’t Obama do it with trains? I imagine a travel network that combines air and high-speed ground connections and includes an inter-modal system that gets heavy trucks off the road and onto rail. In European countries you can get off a plane and get onto a train. You can connect at Charles de Gaulle in Paris or at Schipol in Amsterdam. As air travel heads toward partial obsolescence, why not partner with willing airlines to build surface routes? And just as at America’s entry into WW2, the car companies turned to building bombers and tanks, why not turn them into building people movers to operate on the new Obama high speed lines?

It’s all pie-in-the-sky and this blogger does not expect the White House to notice. I wish they’d take me off their Emailing list and stop asking me for money.