What Difference Does It Make?

Yesterday the Washington Post posted an article with the title, “White House delayed enacting rules ahead of 2012 election to avoid controversy.” No kidding. I hate to be cynical about this article, but I am. Let’s back up and take a look at the article and the significance of posting it now.

The article reports:

The White House systematically delayed enacting a series of rules on the environment, worker safety and health care to prevent them from becoming points of contention before the 2012 election, according to documents and interviews with current and former administration officials.

Some agency officials were instructed to hold off submitting proposals to the White House for up to a year to ensure that they would not be issued before voters went to the polls, the current and former officials said.

…The Obama administration has repeatedly said that any delays until after the election were coincidental and that such decisions were made without regard to politics. But seven current and former administration officials told The Washington Post that the motives behind many of the delays were clearly political, as Obama’s top aides focused on avoiding controversy before his reelection.

This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Any politician worth his salt would have done the same thing. It’s common sense–don’t stir the pot before the election–particularly if the polls show that we are winning.

So why did the Washington Post post this article now, and what is the significance of it? First of all, if these regulations had been passed, would the mainstream media bothered to report them? If the alternative media had reported them, would the information have gotten to the low-information voter? How many voters have we heard say that if they had understood exactly what ObamaCare would mean for them, they wouldn’t have voted for President Obama? The problem here is not that the Obama Administration postponed the regulations–the problem here is that American voters for the most part have no idea what is going on with their government.

A few years ago, I taught a short class on how the American government works. It was attended by people ranging in age from 25 to about 60. There were not a lot of people there–it was sort of a public service night put on by a church–and I was amazed at how much people don’t know. Civics is no longer taught in our schools, and those of us who are old enough to have taken it probably don’t remember what we learned. Until the American voter understands the basics of what the U.S. Constitution says and is paying attention to what is going on around him, there really isn’t much hope that America will survive as a free country.

 

 

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