Expanding The Political Narrative

Our job out here in the blogosphere is to expand the political narrative.

To react to b.s. forcefully.

To respond to partisan blowhard nonsense en masse, whatever side it comes from.

"Expanding the political narrative" was the New Year's resolution I made for this blog.

The problems we have are fundamental ones. They won't be fixed by sound bites. Ten trillion dollars won't cure them – just allow us to ignore them until they return. We need short-term emergency help for the citizens who populate our valleys and plains and coasts, and long term changes in the way we do business on Capitol Hill.

Why am I being so adamant about the political narrative? Because I swear our TV and print friends must have a hat from which they are allowed to draw topics, and a pair of dice that they are permitted to use to determine the scope of their articles.

I’m not asking these guys to give up their bread and butter business – serving champagne to the Budweiser crowd that is America doesn’t make sense.

But making Andy Card’s comments into a news item this week made my blood boil, but not because Card is an idiot, and not because he is trying to do his part to reduce the stature of our current president. My blood is boiling because a reporter took his call and thought it was news worthy. My blood is boiling because this reporter's editor jumped this unbaked waste of a comment ahead of the half-baked ones already on his desk.

It seems like the Fourth Estate is protecting our ignorance instead of protecting our interests by recycling the opinions and peccadilloes of the same three dozen people over and over, then pretending that these sentiments reflect public opinion.

So give all those ex-Bush White House staffers and Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber the number to voicemail, and scramble the passcode – there are hundreds of real stories everyday that need your attention more than these do.