I have this deeply
felt sadness and ache. I watch the Republican debates and I hear the crowd cheer about letting
people without insurance die. Last night the crowd booed an openly gay soldier
asking a question. The candidates appear to be lining up for their chance to
throw more meat at their hungry wolves. My fear is that this movie won’t end
well.
In my
opinion leadership is not just about rallying the troops. Appropriate
leadership also educates. Appropriate leadership does not sink to the lowest
common denominator. If this were not true then men like Hitler and Mussolini
would be celebrated. They each did a masterful job in getting a lot of people
to do their bidding. It was the direction that they led their followers to that
was the determining factor.
It’s
easy to understand that in our current political climate the Bachman’s,
Santorum’s, Limbaugh’s and the rest of the Mensa corps that are the loudest in
the Republican Party will have their moment in the sun. But where are the
voices of rationality and wisdom? Not everyone who has ever been a Republican
politician takes their marching orders from the Koch brothers and some
unfortunate directive from God. Why their silence? They have nothing to lose
since they are out of office.
George H. W. Bush
stopped our troops from invading Baghdad
Today's
news was partially about Obama changing No Child Left Behind. There is much
talk about how the school system is letting our children down. If the clowns on
the stage are in fact the best that America has to offer it won't matter what we
do with the school system.
Posts
I am operating under the belief that a crisis of leadership is one of the primary reasons we are in this vitriolic political climate that we find ourselves. I don't mean only presidential leadership but congressional leadership and state leadership as well. We have an overwhelming number of representatives that are no more concerned with the well being of their constituents than they are the repercussions of their rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteI believe Orwell would be astounded at the pace of which his writings are coming to fruition. America has given fear and hate a platform and the powers that be are taking full advantage of it. This new platform, if allowed to continue, I fear will be one from which America launches a refreshed and ever more powerful assault on our civil liberties. We will see a step backward in terms of social progress and worse yet I believe we'll see renewed drive for more militaristic actions. While it may be an over used quote Hermann Goerring comes to mind:
"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."
What we are able to derive from this, beyond the obvious, is how much easier politics is when you have a clear enemy. Civil rights are destroyed, infrastructure is left to crumble, social welfare dwindles to nothingness and more all under the guise of defeating the enemy. I would argue that it is important to note that this enemy isn't required to be physical in nature it can merely be ideological. I predict this will be our future to come unless we can reverse course soon.
Ultimately, however, we must recognize that so much of the situation we are in is of our own making. We have an overwhelming number of low information voters that simply accept what is told them by main stream media and the party of which they feel affiliated. Fact has been in short supply throughout the Republican debates but yet the majority of conservative voters are just taking it as just that, fact. This is why so many low income conservatives reliably and astonishingly vote against their own interests election after election. History has shown that social conservatives have elected leadership that once elected have shown no interest in actually overturning their perceived social injustices such as abortion rather they merely use it as a device to reinvigorate their base. Fiscal conservatives have elected leadership that once elected treat America's coffers as if they were bottomless and blame it on social spending by the Democrats. This pattern repeats over and over but yet they still vote conservative and continue to demonize the left and unabashedly take what is told to them by their political party as truth.
I don't pretend to have answers to such problems but I believe abolishing the electoral college and removing corporate money from politics would be a hell of a good start to making the election process truly democratized. I believe we also have to impose much stricter rules on what news outlets can produce, the fact that Fox has sued for the right to lie about the news is very telltale sign. Finally we have to do something with the education system, obviously it is to the Republicans advantage to continue to keep their constituents uneducated, but it is for the good of all of America to have an educated citizenship. Politicians are not getting into politics to make a difference they are getting in to get rich and gain power we must demand more.