“It’s the Economy, Stupak!”
I feel reasonably confident that I am the first person to use that phrase in the debate on healthcare. And listen, brother, that is saying something. Because there has been a lot said in the debate on healthcare.
(Can I get an Amen?)
***
The reason I say that I am "reasonably" confident that I am the first to use the phrase is that I googled it and nothing came up in exactly the order in which I placed the words – at least not in the first three or four lines of the search. Anyone who has ever done a little research, and by "little" I mean one of those jobs where you are reasonably sure you know something and you don't want to have to do too much to get the level of certainty from "reasonably sure" to "OK. Now I'm Really Certain" ... as anyone who has done that level of research will tell you -- a search which doesn't turn up an exact match in the first three of four lines of google is the gold standard for searches.
So I’m pretty sure I’m the first.
Yea.
***
Now I should clarify that a bit. It is always possible that someone else used my phrase in its current ordering in exactly the same fashion that I did, prior to today, but even if that is true, they likely did so while intending an entirely different meaning. For example, imagine a scenario in which several “representatives” of "the people” were walking along to some press conference or other, yesterday or the day before. Imagine they were going to find someplace where they could stand in front of the cameras and lean down into the microphone (you know, like a lover), and opine about whether this wording or that wording was a better way to describe just what they had achieved. And also how grateful they are that we are so grateful or how angry they are that we are so angry. It is entirely, theoretically, possible that at some point during such a spectacle, Representative Bart Stupak (D-MI) leaned over to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and asked, “Madame Speaker, what is the name of that thing that the folks back home want fixed right now so that they can continue to send us money?” It is possible that the Speaker leaned down to him (you know, like a conspirator) and said “it’s the economy, Stupak.”
But I gotta be honest -- I doubt that happened. Because as anyone can tell you... nobody’s talking about the economy in Washington right now.
***
I suppose the reason that no one is talking about the economy in Washington right now is that in recent unemployment figures the number stands at just under 10 percent. Which means that the effective unemployment rate is likely somewhere near 17 percent. Which means that a lot of the people who want to work – you know, in order to continue to write checks to the government so that the government checks don’t bounce -- don't have a job. And they are grumpy.
And as anyone can tell you, grumpy people won’t come to the party unless they hear the music through the ceiling and their banging on the ceiling with the broom handle a couple of times already to get your attention... unless that still hasn’t caused you to turn the music down.
Let's face it, the government did what you would have done. In fact, the government did what players have done since before the game was invented... they threw a party. They threw a party and they turned the music not only up, but up. And the grumpy people came up the stairs in their robes and curlers and stood in the hall under the flickering flourescent bulb--
And they banged on the door.
***
Depending on which side you were on, you may have viewed it as a drunken brawl or a victory celebration. But no one can deny that it was an event not to be missed. And so, no one did miss it. Everybody showed up. Even the print media. Even the broadcast news. Which is odd, because many of the folks back home who used to work in the media and now are looking for other lines of work so that they can continue to send checks to the government have recently been made decidedly more grumpy. You might have thought that some of that grumpiness would have trickled up, would have been reflected... But no.
In any event, it kind of works out for everybody, because the media gets a big news event. And anyone can tell you that a big news event drives ratings, which allows for increased advertising rates... so that the media players can make enough money to hire back the folks back home who have been otherwise spending their time working on the drywall project and blogging -- wondering whether if it comes down to it they will give up the additional car or dip into the kid's college fund first, in order to pay the mortgage... All of this, of course, all of this onslaught of jobs, not just saved but created... is to happen for the media players and by extension, one may hope, for every other player in the house... just as soon as anybody can find anybody else who can scrape enough money together to buy an ad.
But what of the politicians? The politicians love the whole thing because they get to throw a party. And who doesn’t like a party? Free buffet, free bar. Come in and look around. Enjoy the fireworks and the hookers. (Yeah, it's that kind of party.)
And for the people? A piece of bread to eat while they watch the circus. And not too shabby, that. Better enjoy it. Better notice the enticingly aromatic, wholesomey goodness of the bread and the spectacular agility of the drunken acrobats... Better eat up!
Because once that’s done, we could be down to bones.
And scraps.
***
Anyway, the fact that I’m the first on the scene with the phrase in question, as I said before, says something. Just consider the sheer magnitude of the cacophony of words that have been poured into this debate, dripped from the honey smooth lips of some of our most eloquent public orators. Consider the wit of the pundits. Think of how many, many sentences have been typed onto keyboards and then sent along through various cable and plasma networks to enter the many, many retinal gazes, to be lodged in the many, many neural networks and to spark the outraged or approving responses which have driven the people to pull out their pocketbooks and send many, many dollars to politicians on either side of the argument – checks which are dutifully endorsed and handed to their staffs by the politicians on their way out the door to another television interview… Which means, of course, more words.
When you think of it that way, you have to admit that it is a little surprising that no one has thought to use the particular play on words that I coined.
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I mean... look, for, example at a sentence in an article in the Daily Kos, a journal of reputed political wit and radical politics. (This reference, by the way, is one of the references that appeared in my original search.) One posting found here (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/3/21/161250/056) used almost precisely my phrasing but with one very important difference. Their phrase (quoted here in context) was, as follows:
“James Carville coined the phrase 'It's the economy, stupid,' Stupak noted”
Therefore, their phrasing of the part of the sentence relevant to our concern -- once all of the context is removed and just the words themselves are stripped out -- is, as follows:
"'It's the economy, stupid,' Stupak" ...
If you look even for a moment at that phrasing you can see the very important difference of which I am speaking. Do you see it? In their phrasing, they are reporting something that Stupak was supposedly quoted as saying in a satirical piece about how Stupak was running for Pope now, and how he will be hiring James Carville to run his campaign. So they quoted Stupak as quoting Carville. Do you see it? Their phrase was, I admit, close to mine. However, the Daily Kos, being who they are, simply ran the satire without commenting on the missed opportunity to make the pun that I make. They simply reported the Carville sentence which included the additional word “stupid” between “economy” and “Stupak.”
And in my phrasing, obviously, I removed the “stupid” from the Carville phrase, because as anyone knows... only the stupid come between Representative Stupak and his fierce, intent focus on the health of the nation's economy.
***
Except that lately that hasn’t been altogether true. (Has it?) Because lately, Representative Stupak's focus has been on other kinds of health concerns. As have, oddly enough, the focuses of the other politicians.
And I wonder why.
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Really, I mean it. Why?
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The govenment, the media, the people... All of their respective focuses have expressly not been on the economy.
Which is odd. Because the economy is not in entirely great shape. In fact, it has lurched back and forth, lately -- but then back again. It's always back, again... to the point that it seems it may be caught in gear. It reminds me of an old Dodge Caravan I drove right in the middle of my second marriage, just before things started going downhill. The van had been sold to me as a bargain at any price, and checked over by a mechanic who told me I could trust him. One day, however, not too long after I got it, it just ground up its gearbox as I was climbing a particularly steep hill. It simply broke... gave out beneath me.
It started rolling backwards. And I could feel the drag of gravity. There was that moment, that brief interval at the tipping point, when I realized that I had to sort of ride it out... that I'd lost control. And my "bargain that was not to be" rolled with increasing momentum back down the hill. Engine blaring.
True story. And I feel that same lurching here.
In fact, it got so bad a short time ago that a single man walking onto an airplane with an explosive package in his shorts was enough to make us really begin worrying about the real world of danger and security. And it was in that worry that a few small voices began to pop through, telling us about how Wall Street is off and running again and how the healthcare care debate has halted any hiring, as companies wait to see the fall-out of their rising costs... and how the foreclosure rate is rising and the Chinese willingness to continue financing our out-of-control deficit is falling, and how we could be teetering on the brink of another formidable collapse... And how, even with all of that going on... we have been focusing on something else... entirely different.
And that seems exceedingly odd to me, because I distinctly remember hearing just a very, very short time ago a certain amount of talk about how the economy is now Priority One. The President stood up there on the deck of the ship of state, with a troop of economics professors and corporate leaders assembled before him, a banner spread behind him that declared “Mission: Economy,” and leaned into the lectern (like he cared)... Or I could have some of my storylines mixed up. One spectacle blends into another for me these days.
***
On any account, with all the this’n and the that’n and the hemmin’ and the hawin’ of the healthcare debate, the government’s attention has been turned to matters other than the economy. And so when the Daily Kos misses the obvious pun that I did not miss, it is not because they are “stupid,” it is just because their attention is not on the same things as mine. Bart Stupak and the President are focusing on whether healthcare reform should include abortion rights, and the President needs Stupak’s vote and Stupak is attempting to give it to him while still maintaining his identification as a Catholic in the increasingly murky waters of religion-based identity politics. So when Stupak finds a way to give his vote to Obama despite his misgivings (Lucky that!), and the Daily Kos, being who they are, write a post saying that the guy ought to be lionized, ought to run for pope, in fact -- it's all just a kind of giggle. You know what I mean? It's a dig at Stupak, but also a kind of welcoming back into the fold. The prodigal son returning. And what’s a welcoming home without a party. And what’s a party without a clown. So the Daily Kos runs its phrase as a set piece in a kind of tossed off joke, and Stupak gets a kick out of it and the President leans in, so that some of that holy fire will rub off on him. And the dancing horses waddle across the stage...
***
Whereas when I use my phrase, I just want them all to shut the hell up and fix the economy.
