The Game They Are
Playing
P. Schultz
December 28, 2012
Here is a
column by Richard Cohen of the Washington
Post [linked below] in which he quotes Casey Stengel, then the manager of
the 1962 “Amazin’ Mets”, asking “Can’t anybody here play this game?”
And then Cohen asserts: “That very question can now be asked about Washington.”
My
response is as follows: Yes, Mr. Cohen, those politicians in D.C. can play the
game. Only it is crucial to understand what game they are playing and it is not
the one you think they are playing.
When
will it strike Cohen, and many others, that what seems to be incompetence is
simply strategy. Or you could even say that the appearance of incompetence
serves the interests of those alleged “incompetents,” here Boehner and Obama.
It is really not very complicated. Say you want to achieve certain things in
dealing with our economy, an economy that is anything but healthy making the
preservation of the status quo difficult to defend publically, what better way
to go about it then making it seem that those things are the only acceptable
alternatives for those holding power in D.C.? Say at the same time, you are
faced with considerable popular anger, anger that has led to the election of
people who threaten your power. Now, suppose there was a way to accomplish both
objectives at once: To preserve an economic situation that benefits you and
those who underwrite you and to preserve your political power by making those
who rode the popular anger into office appear to be “extremists.” That is,
suppose you had a way to avoid economic reforms that would mean huge changes,
changes you and your cohorts don’t want, and were endorsed by people who wanted
to displace you politically. Would you take such steps, even though it meant
you would be labeled “incompetent?” You bet you would. Or as my parents use to
say about someone who acted a bit odd: “She’s laughing…….all the way to the
bank.”
Yes,
Richard Cohen, those in D.C. can play “this game.” Only you have to know what
game it is they are playing.
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