Joe Klein is a Tool
Ξ January 27th, 2010 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Politics |
When it comes to political pundits, I choose my battles over who to get worked up over. People like Keith Olbermann and Sean Hannity wear their partisanship on their sleeves, and it becomes obvious as to what their biases are pretty quickly. I’m not going to complain that DailyKos is too liberal or that the WeeklyStandard is too conservative. If you are watching or reading them, you know what you are getting. Becoming indignant over what they say doesn’t serve much purpose because their audiences already know they’re getting spin or don’t care.
Whom I do get upset over are people like Joe Klein. He’s a “reporter” and a “respected journalist”. He’s well known in political circles, but not, I suspect, by the public at large. He writes for Time Magazine, and is a frequent guest on This Week and other serious political talk shows. As such he is exposed frequently to the populace at large, and has the ability to drive the discussion on political and policy topics. The credentials he brings to any discussion give him immediate clout, but don’t belie his ideological leanings, or just how wacko the guy is. So when he says something outrageous, that is something I rant about.
Absolutely amazing poll results from CNN today about the $787 stimulus package: nearly three out of four Americans think the money has been wasted. On second thought, they may be right: it’s been wasted on them. Indeed, the largest single item in the package–$288 billion–is tax relief for 95% of the American public. This money is that magical $60 to $80 per month you’ve been finding in your paycheck since last spring. Not a life changing amount, but helpful in paying the bills.
. . .
So, two thoughts:
1. The Obama Administration has done a terrible job explaining the stimulus package to the American people…especially since there have been very few documented cases of waste so far.
2. This is yet further evidence that Americans are flagrantly ill-informed…and, for those watching Fox News, misinformed.
It is very difficult to have a democracy without citizens. It is impossible to be a citizen if you don’t make an effort to understand the most basic activities of your government. It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you’re a nation of dodos.
Do I think a “magical” $60 a month is nice? Sure. Do I think it actually solves anything? No, and neither, it seems, does Klein. So why is he so dismissive of the argument that adding $288 billion to the deficit, when we’ve managed to add several trillion over the last two years, is probably a bad idea? Because he’s a partisan and an arrogant elite without a sense of hubris (except to point out the flaw in others).
I “get” the idea behind the stimulus. At it’s basic core, it’s Keynesian economics. That doesn’t mean that I agree with it, or that I think that even within the framework of Keynesian economics it would work, but I at least understand the intellectual ground from whence it sprang. It’d be nice if Klein at least gave those of us in opposition to it the same courtesy and at least conceded that we aren’t just a bunch of ignorant hicks that take our marching orders from Roger Ailes. Of course, I get the feeling that Klein isn’t too upset at the idea that we’re ignorant hicks, but that we aren’t taking our marching orders from *him*.
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