This is part one of a three part post title “Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, stuck in the middle with you (America)”.

False choices. That is what has allowed the hyper-partisans (driven by the greedy media which will not spend one nano-second of air time or one paragraph of writing on the non-controversial) to keep us in a labyrinth of hyper-partisan incompetence.  We have only been allowed to chose from one of two raging storm areas, we have not been allowed to chart the calm seas.

When humanity tries to accomplish something big they have to remove the hot heads and the crazies from the mix. You cannot have radicals pushing incomplete and risky schemes when many lives are at risk, even when they promise the path is a short cut to Nirvana.

When crossing uncharted oceans or preparing to explore the solar system, or when developing a new form of transportation or a new medical procedure, humanity intentionally charts a path away from storms and choses calmer seas to ensure progress is made with little risk to those along for the ride.

These normal concepts for pushing the boundaries found in every human endeavor, are not allowed or promoted in the political arena. Today, the more radical, the more you can pretend to promise, the more mythical the claims, the more media attention provided. People can and do face long hard slogs where you need to persevere over a long period of effort. They do it every day of their lives.

But somehow politics has taken a different path. We need to fix DC and the media, so they can stop taking us through these maelstroms of extremism and get us back to the tried and true approach of joining hands, lowering our personal expectations, and making some damn progress for all.

Here is a frightening chart (H/T Gateway Pundit) which shows how the current economic crisis is tracking way to well with the Great Depression (click to enlarge):

This is our train wreck, brought to us by the hyper-partisan bickerers who prefer brinkmanship over small steps of progress. The clowns and jokers falsely claim the only path forward is through the storms of the fringes, that compromise and bipartisanship will mean destruction. It is the ultimate delusion.

Hyper-partisanship is destroying this country. The ‘my way or hell’ attitude of the fringes is pushing “reasonable” and “low risk” out the window, only to be replaced with another trip into the brink. For too long we have switched from one Ship Of Fools to the other, making progress then having it repealed, then making mistakes, and being stuck with them. The zero sum game we have played since Reagan is for zeroes. 

Clowns to the left, Jokers to the right, stuck in the middle seems like the right place to be.

Tags: Great Depression, Independents, Moderates