Over the years, we’ve all heard folks fed up with the way politicians dug into the granite edifices of DC SHOUT as though a chorus that they should be removed with our votes and replaced. “THROW THE BUMS OUT” is their mantra. Given the fact that Republicans have ruled that roost from 2001 through 2004 and maintained fillibuster-proof demagogic control since, and there’s no doubt that the party which has slashed its path through the past eight years is the Republican establishment, I’m beginning to see the wisdom in that mantra. They had their chance. We all know — at this stage — how they succeeded with their almost impenetrable barrier to second opinions and change engineered by the Democrats.
But as the campaign approaches the finish line, the Smugs (my new name for the DC Republicans) are spending more time making the CASE for dissent. While distancing themselves from the noble patriot they entrusted with Smug party nomination for our nation’s highest elective office, the new point of their campaign is a rear-guard antic telling voters what a shame it will be if those mean old fancy Chabliscrats (my new name for Democrats) go to DC in January holding all the marbles, unafraid to play them. Suddenly the Smugs are pro-second opinion. What a refreshing turn of events! Better they see the wisdom in that principal too late than not at all.
The Smug presidential candidate is saying “fight, fight, fight, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT” repeatedly in his speeches in the past week. Whatever happened to “my friend,” which I’ve not heard in days? To whom is he speaking? When did the people attending his rallies cease to be his friends, and what the heck is he FIGHTING? Are you fighting with your ballot?
In Springfield poet Vachel Lindsay’s exquisite poem To the United States Senate, which I will post here in a day or two, he says “What will you trading frogs do , , , (my ellipsis; not the poet’s) when each sad patriot rises, mad with shame, his ballot or his musket in his hands?” Vachel believed the people know the difference between right and wrong, and I believe the majority of the voters today know as well. I pray voters don’t fight. We are not a nation of quarreling tribes (not that there’s anything wrong with them). Are we?
Are we?
I said are we?
We are a nation UNITED. Let us, united, not run from the future, let us engage it and do the best we can to shape a better one.
Live long . . . . . and proper.
Our politics begins to congeal into philosophies of proactive and reactive behavior.
The reactive tend to deal with symptoms as though they were the original problems. Building prisons, hiring more police, spending more money on the military, and ultimately putting razor wire and twenty foot concrete walls around their luxurious gated communities.
This hasn’t worked, obviously. Should McCain win, or congress be peppered equally with opposing positions to render it useless again, the next step will be to dig moats and build drawbridges.
Then, my friends, I recommend reading The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli.
Fred — Thanks for probably the most erudite and astute observation with a twist that I’ve had the pleasure of reading here at H&Q. I hope you visit often and comment whenever you like!