Happy December to one and all! Let's take a look at how the country is faring, shall we?
So it seems that the phrase at the tip of every politician, reporter, analyst, and political junkie's tongue right now is "fiscal cliff." It's the newest of the doomsday scenarios that congress/our country has seemingly faced, following debt ceiling and credit-rating downgrade crisis of 2011. But what exactly...is it? All the news coverage that at least I've had access to seems to just dodge around what the "cliff" actually is, choosing instead to focus on politicians pointing fingers at the other side blaming each-other for not doing enough to avoid it...whatever it is.
Luckily, we have The Daily Show to not only walk us through difficult concepts like the "fiscal cliff."
Ahh The Daily Show. Seemingly every week you provide me with Post It Politics fodder. Not only explaining seemingly obscure political topics while ridiculing those who are behind said political topics, but also giving me a quality transition to discuss political imagery by satirizing the way we use arbitrary metaphors to circumvent actually making sense of political scenarios.
Today, I won't be braking down a single image or meme, but rather the whole metaphor of a "fiscal cliff." Why the need for such an ominous concept?
The term was popularized by Chairman Ben Bernanke in February of this year as he appeared before the House Financial Services Committee to describe the situation that could come into affect on January 1st if congress doesn't act. Whether or not the scenario he described is really as dire as falling off a cliff would be is hard to quantify, and is at least out of the scope of this particular blog. All that really matters is that is stuck, (probably) making it the last big legislative event of the year, not to mention this congressional session.
We love to use absolutes in political conversation, especially when there are distinct deadlines involved. We do so to attempt to legitimize our own views, while making the other sides seem inconceivable. This is why both sides have been so quick to reference the fiscal cliff, even if Bernanke never intended it to accuse either the Democrats or the Republicans. However, as the above video makes apparent, this gives us with two unviable options, focusing us to instead change our dialogue to make the situation seem less (or more) apocalyptic, as opposed to changing stances. I may differ from Stewart a bit on this method of political dialogue though. While I do find the reasons that we have to change our political metaphors and labels to be rather ridiculous, I don't find the actual act of doing so to be completely meaningless. Though the images that we use to simplify politics can cheapen our discussion, they still play an integral part in how we bring issues to the table. If the metaphor is off, by all means, change it.
Yet, this is not where the apocalypse imagery ends when it comes to congressional budgeting. Last week, Obama released a video, urging middle class Americans to contact their Representatives and tell them what a $2000 tax hike from inaction would do to them, and suggested that they do so by using #my2k, a reference to the feared digital catastrophe that the year 2000 would bring. Many did follow the president's advice, and #my2k trended on Twitter for a good long while. However, this may be due to the fact that many conservatives hijacked the hashtag and used it to call out the president and his tax plan.
And so it goes. As of now, it looks like we've got Thelma and Louise in the congressional driver's seat. Wait, no. Scratch that. There's no way that congress could ever come to a conclusion to do anything quite so easily as Thelma and Louise.
@Post_It_2012
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