Most importantly, it’s the name of The Strokes most recent critically acclaimed 2020 album (and is their best work since their 2001 debut “Is This It”). On the record, the New York-based rock band talks about failed relationships and nostalgia, but also includes songs about topics like the loneliness induced by the pandemic and climate change.
The record brings up many good points about what is “normal”, and as I was listening to it this week searching for inspiration for this exact blog post, I found myself wondering, “Is any of the shit we deal with in politics normal anymore?”
After years of scandal after scandal, not being able to escape Trump in the news cycle, and as soon as he’s out of office, I thought finally things would return to normal. But nope, then we got an insurrection. And after all that fallout, I thought maybe, just maybe now we’ll have a return to normal.
Yet, here we are, 8 full years after Trump’s election and 3.5 years into Biden’s term, and we still can’t seem to return to some form of normal!
I don’t know about you, but I just want a semi-permanent break from the chaos, the scandals, the political theater, the finger-pointing, and the victim blaming, and I just want some normal politics where people operate with pride, get their work done, and genuinely try to better the lives of the American people on a daily basis.
Modern Problems Require…
You thought the answer was modern solutions? Nope! The right answer is that modern problems simply require someone to blame!
Let’s look at our best friend and Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson (R-LA).
It’s no secret that our country is dealing with a crisis at the border. President Biden agrees Republicans won’t stop complaining about it, Speaker Johnson even has press conferences at the border, yet there is no solution… I wonder why?
The answer is that Republicans don’t want a modern solution to address this border crisis, they just want to play the blame game while millions of Americans and immigrants suffer.
This isn’t normal. In my personal life, when someone creates a problem, complains about a problem, yet refuses to work together on a solution, I refer to them as “a giant pain in the ass”.
It is infuriating that the Republican Party refuses to actually engage in solutions to critical problems. Their job isn’t to point fingers or prove a point, their point is to make the lives of me, you, and working-class folks across the country tangibly better!
Do Your Damn Job
If I didn’t publish this blog every week or answer emails, I’d probably get fired. If a teacher chose not to show up for students for a week, they’d be out of a job. Yet, Nebraska’s Congressmembers, Rep. Flood, Rep. Bacon, and Rep. Smith, elected by the people, for the people all get off scot-free when they intentionally don’t work for the people! Someone make it make sense, please!
It would be one thing if we simply disagreed on policy, like disagreeing on rates of taxation or how much we should subsidize farmers, but the Nebraska delegation of the Republican Party in particular is dead set on stopping progress, not making it!
Members of Congress are known as “public servants”. We the people elect them to serve us. In their job title, it pretty explicitly says that the responsibility of a member of Congress or any other public servant is to serve the public interest. Nobody is served by finger-pointing, press conferences on the border, or playing the blame game. We need tangible results!
The American people get to serve as a sort of HR for politicians. We can conduct our performance reviews, and then once every two or four years, we decide if the candidates are worthy of a new contract or should be fired. According to a 2023 poll from Pew Research Center, only 3% of Americans even think that politicians care about the people that they serve, “all of the time”
So my question to you is why do we put up with it? Nebraska has been ruled by the same party at every level of government since 2008. Where is the appetite for change?
The Democratic Party has a great slate of candidates declared so far just in the primary! We have folks running from Scottsbluff to Omaha, from school board to Senate, and everything in between. These Republicans in office sit on their butts all day, take meetings with corporate donors, neglect to serve us, the people, and still keep their jobs! That needs to change, Nebraska!
Politicians aren’t more special or more worthy than me and you. If we didn’t do our jobs, we would get fired, and there’s no reason why we should hold Republican politicians to a lower standard. They bicker, argue, fight, point fingers, and refuse to serve the public. They don’t deserve the title of public servant, deserve to all lose their jobs, and get voted out in 2024. This type of lazy governing is not normal and is far worse than what we deserve.
Around the Horn
Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs on winning the Super Bowl! Unfortunately, the celebration is now shrouded in the pain and hurt caused by a mass shooting at the Super Bowl parade that left 1 dead, and 21 injured, 12 of them being kids. It’s just sad that we cannot enjoy the things we love without fearing for our lives anymore. Gun reform is overdue and is a grave public health crisis – let’s treat it as such.
Last week, former President Donald Trump told NATO allies that, “we are not going to protect you”. The “America First” guy is now pro-Russia and pro-China. If Trump is making his bed with some authoritarian dictators… well… birds of a feather flock together.
And finally, we decided to feed the kids! After weeks of immense public pressure from the public, spearheaded by our very own Sen. Jen Day, Gov. Jim Pillen decided to opt into the program to provide federal funding for school lunches. Good things happen when we pressure our public servants into doing the right thing!
Thank you for reading,
Please consider donating to the NDP here. Authenticity and effort are on the ballot this year – we deserve folks who work to create solutions for the public – and we need help in order to keep up with the corporate mega-donors of the GOP.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out at jack@nebraskademocrats.org.
All the best,
Jack Schiewe
