"webbed" (encaustic, 12" x 24" 2010)EVERY so often, the Times' David Brooks gets right to the heart of the matter. A quotation:
In times of crisis, you get a public reaction that is incoherence on stilts. On the one hand, most people know that the government is not in the oil business. They don’t want it in the oil business. They know there is nothing a man in Washington can do to plug a hole a mile down in the gulf.Well, yes. But I'm not holding my breath, considering that the role these days of the national media, especially television media and more especially cable "news" media, seems to be to perpetuate ignorance.
On the other hand, they demand that the president “take control.” They demand that he hold press conferences, show leadership, announce that the buck stops here and do something. They want him to emote and perform the proper theatrical gestures so they can see their emotions enacted on the public stage.
They want to hold him responsible for things they know he doesn’t control. Their reaction is a mixture of disgust, anger, longing and need. It may not make sense. But it doesn’t make sense that the country wants spending cuts and doesn’t want cuts, wants change and doesn’t want change.
At some point somebody’s going to have to reach a national consensus on the role of government. ...
