Scatterbrains. Today's Description of American Politicians.

My friendly alien from outer space would certainly judge the American politics as being dominated by scatterbrains. They see a shiny object and go "Ooohhh! Let's sell this to the public not paying attention!" and we get the deficit debacle, while unemployment and the disastrous increases in income inequality and the way houses are no longer a source of personal wealth for people are all swept under the rug.

Then the deficit "compromise" bill is signed into law by president Obama (huddled alone in the Oval Office, it seems), and suddenly a new shiny object is required! What else could we destroy while we are at it?

Magpies are supposed to steal shiny objects and take them to their nests. That's very much like American politicians, though magpies are prettier and perhaps more intelligent and socially responsible.

Take this beautiful bipartisan compromise bill: Sure, it helps Obama's re-election bid because it's not going to come up again right before the elections. But does it help most Americans? That, my friends, is a nevermind, because it's not a shiny object.

Not all politicians are scatterbrains, of course. But most of them certainly believe that the American voters are. How else explain the findings after the last election that the number one concern of voters was the need for jobs, and what came after that? Not jobs at all, but cutting back on federal and state-level spending to make even more people lose their jobs!

And the shared sacrifice bullshit. How is a sacrifice shared if no taxes are raised for the wealthy? What are they sacrificing? I don't see anything at all, and that is a problem. After all, the frailest and weakest among us are going to make big sacrifices.