Since the beginning of January, I awake each day with a feeling of trepidation. I wonder what has happened during the night while I was asleep, because guaranteed something has happened to create fear or outrage or both. We live in strange times now, where politics has become an integral part of everyday daily life, whether you like that or not. We are surrounded by politicians screaming for our attention, the one more bizarre and outrageous than the next. Creating fear and outrage is the new normal. Making people feel insecure is the new normal. Pulling the rug out from under people’s feet is the new normal. Being confrontational, aggressive and adversarial is the new normal. Getting in your face, likewise. Where will it end? We are verbally attacking our allies overseas, causing them trepidation about whether or not they can trust the USA to be there for them if necessary.
Creating fear and outrage is a policy tactic. Creating chaos likewise. The buckshot approach. Shoot your mouth off and watch the words spread out in all directions, no specific target in mind. The media can’t possibly focus on all directions at once, so where there is a vacuum or an oversight on the part of the media, fear and outrage move in. The public will panic and try to deal with what’s happening as best it can. Those being attacked will try to protect themselves, but after a while it’s exhausting to fight back.
This buckshot approach may work in a business setting, but not when the setting is the governmental arena. It’s impossible to run the government as a business, no matter how many times we say that it all should work more efficiently. Downsizing the bureaucracy is not an overnight job. Even if it’s necessary to pare it down, it’s not right or ethical to dismantle it completely and throw it into chaos. People depend on functional bureaucracies for unemployment benefits, retiree benefits, health coverage, etc. The country will not function without bureaucracies. Those who attempt to downsize them should know what they’re doing, and should accept that it will take time. Let’s hope they don’t do more harm than good.
