"Don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player."

Note to readers: I wrote this on March 3rd. If you think this is a reflection, reinforcement or plaigarization of Trump’s speech on March 3rd, it’s not. My homework was turned it before his mic was turned on. This will make more sense in a minute. ________________________

When I decided to write last week’s piece about DOGE, I knew a few people would get ruffled. I have a pretty large reader base (thank you) and in any population, differing opinions are just a part of baking the cake – especially when the ingredients include controversy or a mention of a certain “you know who”. What I didn’t count on were the adamant haters in the audience and how truly pissed they were about my thoughts and words. Super pissed really. Maybe beyond pissed.

Pinky swear. I can pinky swear a few things to you right now. First, I didn’t write last week’s Sunday Blog to upset anyone. I’m not a traitor, Elon fanboy or a member of the left or right. I wrote it because I see two problems that transcend party and politics: the pending financial ruin of our country if we don’t do something about the debt and deficit problems, and the lies, misinformation, and lack of information we are fed about both by the stewards of our money. We all need to care about something, and for me the debt and the deficit are the two problem children that our parents should have sent to reform school a long time ago. I’m no stranger to this conversation – I’ve been a student of the debt and the deficit for over 20 years. I’ve sat in the pew, listened to the sermon, I’ve read the propaganda, I bought the T-shirt, listened to the album, I have the poster in my bedroom, and I’ve toured with the band. I’ve made it my business to know something about the business of America. I think that qualifies me for a backstage pass.

And that brings me to my second point: we’re living in a moment of history where we’ve lost our way with each other. Since the Covid time, the loudest voices in the room live on the extreme left and extreme right. They get the clickbait that pays the bills for the pushers, but they have also become the standard bearers of the opinions we shape, believe and defend. As the food fight that consumes the hearts and minds of our leaders seems to go on forever, no one is really talking about the commonsense middle – the place where hard politics takes a back seat to using our better judgement. Given the grade I was given on last week’s homework by a few readers, I went back and read it again, and you know what? I wouldn’t change any of it. Not a word, not a comma, not a failed joke. I’m good.

The mission. Each week I try to create a message for you that I think matters. Some weeks are better than others, but that’s the mission. This week’s message begins with a small self-reflection on the work of content creation: if you’re going to take a risk and expose yourself to any audience, you pick up both ends of the stick – you open yourself for both praise (hopefully) and condemnation (certainly). An atta boy is easy for anyone, but disapproval? Not so much. When was the last time you did something and you said to yourself, “Oh boy, some people are really going to hate me for this”, and then you pressed “send” anyway? No one likes to be the target of another’s disdain or ayre, even when the arrow is shot from the back row.

But it wasn’t all haters and not everyone thought of me as a traitor (thankfully). In fact, many of you replied with either a simple thumbs up or some much appreciated words of praise. That was nice and thank you. But you know what? It was also interesting. Interesting because each of you for whom I triggered an opinion, good or bad, were reading the exact same thing. Sometimes your audience is an anomaly concealed as a paradox and wrapped in an irony.

Step aside, Joe. But enough of me. Whether you’re rooting, booing, or just yawning about the world around us, this is a good moment for each of us to consider the role of government in our lives. I’m not a big government guy; I never have been. I’m more of a Libertarian, but there are certain things that only a government can do – like protect its people en masse. The irony of DOGE is that if it “works” or if it doesn’t, we’ll probably never know the difference. That’s because DOGE isn’t offense, it’s defense. Think of it as if you were trying to prevent an anthrax attack. You invest a ton of blood and treasure into that prevention, and if “it” doesn’t happen, that’s a win, but it’s a win without any cheering by those who you protected. And yet, if it fails, you’re immediately the villain and the new red meat of internet scrutiny, contempt, and blame. In public policy just as in sport, the defense is always harder than the offense. Always.

My failing. If I failed at all last week, it was in not drawing a bright line between politics and problems. Some people just need a villain. Villains play a special role in our minds and hearts. They are easy to isolate and easy to blame, and we use them as effigies and tell ourselves and the world how they are the cause of our problems. Villains come in all shapes, sized and play a leading role in many of our relationships. A villain could be your ex-person, your parent, or your president, but here’s the funny thing about villains: without a villain, there can be no victim. But the real hell of it is that when you’re paying rent in your mind to someone else’s existence, you give yourself a hall pass to ignore your own misgivings. Maybe we’ll unpack that one on another Sunday.

Democracy is a messy experiment. We forget that. Perhaps the greatest societal ill of this moment in history isn’t how we believe someone else violated us, it’s that we are so embedded in the yes or no, right or wrong, blue or red, of the never-ending food fight. As the right and left throw hot dogs and salad at each other, I often wonder, “What happened to the commonsense middle?” I mean, I love all the people, and I respect all the views, but the commonsense middle is where most of my folks live. We’re not looking to invent the next Tesla, conquer the next universe, or bent on the endless criticism of America. We just want a little happiness, some security, and to feel like our government is doing the right thing (mostly). Is that wrong? I remember being in therapy once with a girlfriend in my 30’s. At one point the therapist looked at me and asked, “Would you rather be in a relationship, or be right?” I thought that was a bit grandiose – as if she was wearing the black robe and handing out the candy and the punishment, so I looked back at her and simply said, “Both”. That was my last appointment – with the therapist and the girlfriend.

There comes a time when we need to see the world around us not through the lens of our differences, but through the bond of our commonalities. This is one of those times. If I didn’t message that adequately last week, let me try again: the debt and deficit aren’t political problems, they’re math problems, and if management doesn’t do something about the mess it’s gotten us into, we’re all screwed – red, blue, black, white, rich, poor, it doesn’t matter. We’ve known for a long time about the growing hole in our ship of state and how it will eventually lead to our very ruin, but we’ve done nothing about it but make it worse. And those who we have given the stewardship of our money have failed us again and again while furthering the cause of their precious egos, self-importance, and lifetime free healthcare. And by the way – that comment applies to both teams. My common sense tells me that the Emperor is wearing no clothes. What does yours tell you?

America, the dumb? Everyone agrees that wasting our tax money isn’t good management, the dissent is in the implementation. And so we watch the man with the chainsaw, we eat the stories of apparent human suffering, and we raise our fists in revolt. These things are all understandable; disruption is a kind of war without guns and those with all the power are always the most deeply embedded in the status quo. But it’s too soon to really know if DOGE is a redeemer or a dud. It took us 250 years to get into this mess, we won’t get out of it in less than 30 days. In the meantime, we are a nation of addicts who are always looking for the next outrageous headline to give us another hit of the dopamine we desire, and the pushers of the clickbait on the cable news are only too happy to feed our addiction. My common sense tells me that I honestly don’t know if they are going about DOGE the right way or not. What I do know is math. Every moment we continue to live in denial about our debt and deficit creates a dozen more days we’ll be paying for it (plus interest). Spending less than you make each year is a lesson we teach 8-year-olds. Maybe next time we should see some second graders on the ballot. For now, I’m waiting a bit to pass judgement. How you wring your hands is up to you.

America, the smart. America is smarter than this. We’ve saved the world more than once, we’re the oldest nation to never have its military turn guns on its citizens, we invented the iPhone, Google, Facebook, and this crazy thing called the internet. It’s time for those who pull the levers and sign the checks to set aside the ideology of the day, have a truce in the food fight, and face the math straight on.

Sorry this one was kind of a long, not very sexy or a ton of fun. But this is a very, very important issue that will affect all of us. You can love me, you can hate me, or you can blame me, I’ve had all three. Just don’t shoot me, I’m only the piano player.

Good luck and have a good week.

Joe Still

2025.03.09

Cite: “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.” – Milton Friedman