The Big Picture

I used to get irritated with actors or sports figures who supported a particular charity, typically a disease with which they were afflicted: Christopher Reeves and spinal injuries, Michael J. Fox and Parkinson's. But eventually I understood: there are so many causes, from drought and starvation in Africa to Muscular Dystrophy-- no on can possibly cover all of them, or even keep in a persistent state of agitation at the tribulations in the world. Narrowing your focus to a particular problem and trusting others to pick up their share is rational and legitimate.

So, too, with political discourse. There are so many issues that can get your blood pressure up that it becomes necessary to limit yourself to a few choice ones at most and let the rest take care of themselves.

Some topics of particular interest to me:

• The recent bill authorizing torture and unlimited detention without legal recourse, even of American citizens
  
• The war in Iraq, which comes with several subheads: the continuing incompetence in the overall policy (if any), the lies that led to the invasion itself, the corruption endemic in the letting and execution of contracts, the stubborn refusal to acknowledge facts when they conflict with political desires, and so on ad nauseum.
  
• Lack of oversight by Congress and the usurpation of power by the Executive Branch
  
• Rampant corruption in Congress and the inordinate power wielded by lobbyists
  

Those are the biggies off the top of my head. Others that come to mind that are useful for beating up Republicans on, and are in and of themselves important, but don't threaten the republic (in no particular order):

• The Republican leadership's handling of the Foley issue, ignoring a problem for political reasons and then covering it up when exposed (sorry)
  
• The economy: driving every decision to the benefit of Big Business
  
• Tax policy: the enrichment of the already rich on the backs of the middle and lower classes
  
• Environmental policy: the watering-down of the Clean Air Act, the opening of national forests to lumbering, the relaxing of regulations all around, and on and on
  
• Energy policy: the focus on drilling for more oil rather than on increasing fuel economy standards or renewable resources
  

There are many more, and my one-line summaries don't do justice, of course, to the complexities of each, but I'm running out of my lunch hour here. The real focus should be on defeating the Republicans in November. More on that later.