The rising crescendo of criticism of President Bush is taking up a lot of think-time on all sides. Polls may have shown that a high percentage of Americans approve of the President’s handling of foreign affairs, and a slightly lower percentage of Americans “approve of the President’s handling of the economy.” But, while liberals are reaching shriek-level ranting about anything they can claim has been done wrong by “Bush,” non-liberals aren’t any slouches in the criticism department, either.
Should the liberals succeed in gaining the upper publicity hand and convince the relatively uninformed voters that they have been “had” by believing that Bush was doing his best to make the world and the continental U.S. safe, we’re in for big trouble when the mask falls off the loudest of the liberal complainers and the march of the U.S. to socialism or worse goes into high gear.
But, if Conservatives, Libertarians, and other “non-liberals,” of any political affiliation concentrate so hard on pointing out flaws mainly on the basis of things the relatively uninformed voters can’t or aren’t willing to grasp, they may well plant the thought in the minds of most Americans that “anybody but Bush” is the only way to end the ills and inconveniences in their personal lives. The more educated may argue that Congress has been circumvented in decisions, but the less well-up-on Constitutional law and history will simply decide that a new broom is just the right vehicle to put the country back on track. Short attention spans, delusions of promised goodies, and miscalculation on the part of Republicans about how well-informed and involved the voters were, is what brought Hillary Clinton to the choice maneuvering position she has now. Whether she is merely the string-puller behind the scenes, or the candidate waiting to rush in and recapture the White House for the Democrats, may not be known for sure until the nominating conventions have passed and the near-daily polls both take the pulse of the voters and subliminally sway their choice in the next poll.
When winning is everything, any way winning can be achieved, by whatever candidate can swing it, then free-standing principled arguments by individuals or small and uninfluential groups don’t stand much of a stand-alone chance to prevail.
Of course President Bush, as any human being, let alone any President, may have made some mistakes. Considered against the actions of the previous administration, we certainly have much less to complain about. The Big Brother-type government and corporate activities which are causing much concern were well under way prior to 2002, but received little attention. Now this administration is taking heat from both foes and friends for things that were ignored earlier, and now are being proposed or enacted in a society that has itself become short on principle, ethics, and morality. Short-term memories regarding past actions, and steady changes in the type of society we have tolerated and built, haven’t been jogged anywhere near enough by anywhere near enough people to have offset the criticisms of Bush that have been coming from non-liberals. And, therein lies the danger.
Perhaps we all need to begin by asking who anywhere in any office anywhere in the country we can agree with 100% of the time. Even among families and friends, 100% agreement on every issue is impossible. To think that 100% agreement with the highest decisions in the country is proof of a good leader is exactly how tyrants seize power. We’re treading a fine line between the high and often unrealistic expectations of non-liberals and the “iron” agendas cloaked in “velvet” words that will override any principles or historical understanding if we aren’t careful.
If Americans have been unaware of, inattentive to, and unable to counter the corruption, personal criminal actions, greed and financial manipulations erupting into public view in a number of states, cities, towns, corporations, schools, religious denominations, and elsewhere, how can we think that one person can be responsible for straightening out all bloat, profiteering, opportunism, and even criminal behavior, all across the government and across anything and everything even remotely connected with the government? How can we think that criticism alone can change the global agendas, global intrigues and brutal behavior that has been allowed to build to gigantic proportions and now encompasses so many fragmented groups, goals and demands that few people can even keep them straight by definition, let alone decide how to deal singly with any of them?
How can we look at the dumbed-down skills of far too many graduates of our schools and expect much future, needed, intelligence applied to any problem at any level of government? The media, long believed to be the final arbiter of truth and needed information, is staggering under growing numbers of cover-ups and fact twisting. Do we have enough people able to inform “all of the people almost all of the time” to offset the damage that is still far from understood as a result of sloppy, inaccurate and agenda journalism?
Do we have enough people ready to see the dangerous fall-out from America’s turning away from principle and integrity in time to take back all the positions of power that have been co-opted by those who make it almost impossible for anyone to be able to overcome the dangers, mistakes and sloppy attention to day-to-day “business” currently rampant in more places and in far greater numbers than ever before?
We’re great on, and right on/right on, with knowing principle, law, ethical dealings and expectations.
But, do we have enough people grounded in all of that to first run for and fill leadership positions in enough places at once to do more than mount an attractive diversion from the juggernauts we’re up against in too little/too late wanting near perfection, perfect integrity and perfect batting averages everywhere actions affect us in this country?
Then, next, do we have enough “charisma” to go with the rightness of such an endeavor that we can attract enough people to stir their stumps and get out to vote — especially as the liberal-left knows the next elections are the final hurdle to their near-permanent control? Anyone who has seen the bloat in school budgets and tried to mount a reasonable opposition can testify to how overpowering the opposition is that is mounted against them. Multiply that kind of effort for a national political campaign.
Lastly, do we then have enough people in the principled ranks who also have enough specific skills to fill all the government leadership slots, let alone the lower-levels of advisors and counselors and supporters who will be there for the long haul? Can we staff a full government by principle, integrity and efficiency, instead of “best we can do at any one time, given the intensity of the opposition and the minefield of well-placed “worker bees” needed to carry out the edicts and standards of such a government? It takes a well-organized political effort to achieve its goals and expect compliance way down to the grassroots level. A principled political effort needs a society to match, if it is to succeed. Gaps along the way can destroy the best of abilities and intentions at the top.
Beware what we plea for in any public place. The walls have ears that hear what they want to hear, grab it, embellish it and shout it from the housetops as part of the campaign to permanently and REALLY overturn the Constitution, and all else that principled people cling to as the underpinnings of the country. We’re in that famous rock and a hard place position, where good intentions can be misunderstood and silence can be used against us.
We need to not only be careful what we plea for, but how we phrase the pleas. Politics may be our problem, but society as a whole is a large part of our problem. Corruption is our public and private problem. Inattention is our public and private problem. Inept decisionmaking in many places is our public and private problem. Widespread profligate spending is our public and private problem. Widespread greed and high-living is our public and private problem. Widespread expectation that someone else is paying attention for us is our public and private problem. Voter ignorance is our problem. And all are both present and past conditions in our society, albeit more pervasive than ever before.
One man isn’t our problem, as long as all the other problems are considered sacrosanct and off-limits because of who is involved or who will suffer if principle, integrity or ethics are to be the new criteria, when the old brought us to where we are today while so many people bought into it, profited by it, or tolerated it.
“Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact.”