With no actual solution to Americans’ most pressing problems on offer under the existing system, candidates for high office distract voters with cultural wedge issues.
Civics 2024
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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I think that most problems have solutions. The abortion debate could be solved in 20 minutes. Israel/Palestine, ditto. The whole low wage/high living expenses thing? Piece of cake. Every CEO I ever see talks about the “challenge” of the work being the reward. And ALL of them want employees who “understand” that they need to go the extra mile and give 110%.
By law, reduce CEO pay to no more that twice the pay of the lowest-paid employee. And portion of the remuneration package that isn’t money must be given to all other employees at the same level. In fact, do it for the whole C-suite. You’ll see pay rise.
Of course those problems have solutions. The difficulty is subjective, namely, that the people who hold the most power over the situations you describe don’t want solutions of the sort that you’re proposing, and wrangling them is a tall order. The abortion debate, by the way, cannot be “solved”, or rather driven underground and eventually reduced in importance, except through heavy-duty coercion (no matter which side you want to “solve” it for).
The choice to have an abortion is a hard one. It requires a careful balancing of important priorities that are pitted against each other. There is a tremendous variety of situations and it is almost never an easy decision. All of that is indisputable. The only question is who gets to make the tough, detail-important decision, the pregnant person or the legislature.
Much as marriage equality eventually won over a supermajority of the populace, I do think that the abortion issue will find a happy ending.
Dude in the red hammer-and-sickle shirt in the last panel oughta be Jill Stein in green, since that’s what she’s saying, in a very gentle way, and that’s the reception she’s getting.
Yes, Ted, who sells himself more than that lady hanging out in front of the Sugar Bowl Inn on Airline Highway (See if you can figure out where I live.). BTW, Ted has a good joke on his latest DMZ. I’m going to use it. BTW, good podcast.
“If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the facts and the law are both against you, make an ad hominem attack. “