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Romney  revived a sagging campaign with a good showing at the first presidential debate . Two days later the monthly employment figures show the economy is starting to trend up slightly, and the housing market is looking up. Good news for the President, and the conservative fringe starts howling foul  again . They wrap themselves in the flag, and sputter their weekly vitriol using language like “Liberals,  disgusting, obsessive, the government steals from you, a group of lying, crooked socialist writing trash”… so much for adult behavior, and critical thought…

And speaking of critical thought, It is, an interesting demographic point. Conservative talk radio has an  average  listening age of  67 and rising, the Fox News audience, likewise, is in its mid-60s. Only  old dinosaurs listen to talk  radio these days, and it’s doubtful many people under 50 even know AM radio exists, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the average age of right-wing radio listeners is 67. It’s also not shocking that this demographic is also predominantly male. According to a Pew study , 72% of Limbaugh’s elderly listeners are men and thus are statistically likely to “stroke out” sometime in. Obama’s second term, assuming he wins one .And we wonder about the long term fate of the “Party of old white men.

It’s a fact that our educational system is failing us, especially in Alabama (we historically rank 48 nationally).  Both for our economic future, and sadly, the level of political intelligence of the average  voter seems to be affected . The fact that you are reading this says you are an educated voter hopefully  more than just listening to Limbaugh and to Fox or for political opinion. Fox has only 8 hours of news a day, the rest of the 24 hours is opinion with a conservative  message.  MSNBC may  not be much better .  If the newspaper is written for a sixth to eight grade level, imagine the level that TV and radio pander to.

There has been a rejection of logic and a celebration of the “Blood Sport of Politics” .The mob cries for simple answers not for logic or truth .  Time Magazine stated that John Steward is now one of the most trusted names in news. Looks like we are back to the medieval concept of the wise court jester.

The conservatives now seem to be promoting many of the same solutions that propelled us to where we are now.  Tax cuts while we are fighting unfunded wars, cutting  government spending immediately, rather than think anything through, rolling  back financial regulation because we know that Wall Street can police itself, and let the market prevail because we can trust them to do the right thing. And while we are at it, let’s put no limits’ on corporate campaign spending with no disclosure on who’s funding the  Presidential campaigns. Let’s allow public service unions to give more money to candidates so that they can have better pension systems than private sector workers.

What we are missing is any realistic diagnosis of where we are as a country and what is needed to get us back to sustainable growth. Despite the efforts of the private sector and government, the outlook for competing in the global market place and developing good jobs for the American worker has further deteriorated.   

The U.S. ranks 6th in innovation based competitiveness; we rank 11 in number of high school graduated in industrial nations, 16th in college graduates. 48 in science and math, and 27th in degrees in science and engineering.  And yet we still have not addressed education in a serious way. We are 24th in life expectancy, so much for the health care argument.  The reason? We are obsessed with the short term solution. We have a dysfunctional political system that knows the right answers, but can’t even discuss them much less act on them. There is nothing that the government, Federal Reserve or tax cutters can do to make our economic pain vanish overnight. There are no answers from politicians of either side.

What about the mantra for job creation? American corporations like IBM, Coca-Cola Google, Caterpillar and many more are thriving. Over the past 10 years, the Strategy for success has been  adoption of new  technologies that produce massive efficiencies.  The  increase in technologies, that promotes efficiencies means that you are going to see weak job creation for a long time. We have become the most efficient society at the expense of the worker. These companies aren’t outsourcing jobs; they are simply investing in growth areas and cutting back where there is weak demand. Companies have learned to do more with less.  While business is thriving in this  economy, the American worker has lost out. Capital and technology are mobile, labor isn’t. Get used to it. We live in a global economy.

Coca –Cola an all American company, derive 80% of their profits from overseas. They are merely headquartered in Atlanta.  Google has made $11.1 billion overseas since 2007, and paid just 2.4% in taxes. Until we fix our 1,600 page of lobby driven tax code, you the tax payer will carry the burden, something the politicians won’t address.

Job growth is broken down in to three areas. Managerial, professional, and technical. All those are held by highly educated workers who are comfortable in the global economy. Technology followed by global competition has played a large part in making less valuable the tasks that once sustained the middle class. Just as in the great depression, where labor transitioned from Agriculture to the industrial age, the “fix” is going to take time.

Don’t expect any changes because 2012 and the return of the republicans will be tailor made for fans of gridlock. Compromise is already a dirty word, just read Mr. Tyler…