By Chris Satullo
Three recent moments of everyday life that spurred me to think semi-deep political thoughts:
1) My wife and I strolled up to the Eastern States Penitentiary in Philadelphia’s Fairmount section the other day to deposit our mail-in ballots for the midterms. Yes, the drop-off box was right in front of that famous, failed Quaker experiment in rehabilitation. It was hard not to think – as we slid our ballots into the slot and smiled for the cameras to assure the authorities we were not hardened vote-fraud criminals – how sweetly it would be if a couple people whose names were on those ballots would soon find themselves inside prison walls, instead of running for high offices they don’t deserve.
My spouse and I had both sweated over the needlessly complex instructions for filling out and preparing our ballots to avoid having them summarily spoiled on a technicality.
Most Pennsylvania lawmakers who voted for this absurd procedure had to know, deep down, that doing things like insisting on black ink, not blue, had nothing to do with fairly counting ballots or preventing (utterly rare) individual voter fraud. No, they were just looking to find multiple pretexts to throw out ballots from people who have a hard time deciphering or following complex instructions.
The proponents of this Rube-Goldbergian system were, of course, all Republicans. As we walked back to our home in Fairmount after having (we hoped) exercised our sacred franchise, a thought struck me with new force:
These Republicans must be operating on the age-old (or at least William Buckley-old) assumption that Democratic voters are just intrinsically stupider than their voters.
And as I walked by the front door of Jack’s Firehouse restaurant (fabulous pulled pork), this thought made me laugh out loud:
Yeah, sure, the people who believe that both climate change and the pandemic are hoaxes, who see a chronic grifter who fomented an armed attack on the nation’s Capitol as a “law and order” President, who believe Hillary Clinton personally tortured children in the basement of a Washington, D.C., pizza shop, who think Mehmet Oz is a straight shooter and Tucker Carlson an American patriot, yeah, they’re the smart ones.
If there’s any justice in this world, the absurd acrobatics Americans are being forced to endure simply to exercise their most sacred right will end up costing the party that demanded this nonsense as many votes as they do the Dems.
2) About the sixth time that I watched the scintillating, chill-inducing video of Bryce Harper’s pennant clinching home run last Sunday, this thought crossed my mind:
Lord, I hope the Democrats turn out to be the Philadelphia Phillies of politics this year.
The Dems, like the Phillies, have spent much of this season being chastised as disappointing, underperforming and terminally frustrating, indicted for spending huge gobs of money to no apparent effect. They, like the Phils in September, are fading down the stretch, seemingly on the verge of squandering what once seemed like surefire autumn success.
In Joe Biden, they have a leader who, like the Phils’ Rob Thomson, got the job as a ho-hum replacement for the original favorite of the team’s fans, a chief who seems too old for the gig and notably short on eloquence.
Like the Phils’ defense and bullpen, the Dems’ messaging and tactics show such dire deficiencies that they bid to undermine the star power that dots the team’s lineup.
Well, the Fightin’ Phils have surprised everyone now, haven’t they, with their camaraderie and clutch gene becoming the feel-good story of the MLB playoffs. Can the Dems pull off a similar transformation in the days remaining before Nov. 8?
I’m liking the Phils’ chances in the Series better – and I don’t really believe they can beat the Houston Cheat-ros.
3) Driving through North Carolina one day earlier this week, this is the gas price for regular unleaded I saw at several stations: $3.39 a gallon.
Later, I checked something out on the Web: In October 2014, in the middle of Donald Trump’s term, that number was $3.17. But just a month earlier, it was…wait for it…$3.41.
In a similar vein, pop quiz: In which year was the violent crime rate in America higher: 2021, under Joe “Soft on Crime” Biden, or 1985, in the heart of Ronald Reagan’s Morning in America?
As Kai Ryssdal says on Marketplace, now for the numbers:
1985: 597 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants
2021: 396 crimes per 100,000
Yep, stop the insanity.
You can play this game all day. Take any area where there’s an established narrative that the Republicans are good at something, and the Democrats bad, then see what the numbers per administration actually indicate.
Another salient example is the economy. The average American believes, because they’ve been told it ceaselessly, that Republicans are decidedly more reliable on the economy and the nation’s finances. However, the stats on GDP growth, unemployment, deficits, and other indicators say otherwise – loudly.
My conclusion: It’s a really big help to a political party to have a supposedly independent media source that is fiercely dedicated to spinning propaganda for that party, willing to spin any specious narrative, distort any statistic, or tell any lie to make the other party look out-of-touch, inept or evil.
It’s not, however, really good for the Republic. It’s dangerous.
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Chris Satullo, a civic engagement consultant, is a former editorial page editor/columnist at The Philadelphia Inquirer, and a former vice president/news at WHYY public media in Philadelphia