We Are the April Fools

I thought about trying to write a humorous (assuming I am even capable of being humorous) post for April Fools Day; maybe a paean to all the benefits flowing from the reform law, or talking about the great benefits arising from provider and payer consolidation, or, let’s see, here’s a good one, praising the drug companies for their restraint in pricing their products.  But no, the world seems a little too serious for humor these days.  So instead, how about a little talk about who the fools in this country are, and we don’t mean fool in the Renaissance sense of a wise jester who cleverly reveals social and other truths.

I don’t mean to offend anyone’s political sensibilities, but how can we be headed to an election between a pathological mendacist, about to be (certainly should be) indicted for a federal crime, and a boorish egomaniac who has no real interest in the job (at least what we would hope the job should be).  And the current secondary alternatives–an economic nutcase who has never accomplished anything in his life, including during way too many terms in the Senate and a speaking-in-tongues, deport them all, zealot, aren’t much if any better.

There is a lot to be frustrated about in our country, and people aren’t even talking much about the main problems–our ongoing deficits, skyrocketing debt, and non-growing economy.  The proposed solutions–building walls; enacting trade barriers; getting “good deals”; punishing the wealthy and successful; an ever-larger government and regulatory regime–are beyond laughable.  And I know that there are segments of the population, likely most if not all of the readers of this blog, who support the hard and sensible actions that are necessary if we are to effectively improve our national situation, but we collectively as citizens seem to have gone off the rails in our political decision-making. Somehow we have to find a way to right the political process and find the will to take the very difficult steps to avoid a true economic, social and foreign policy disaster, or next April I will be writing an even more mournful post.