I uphold the Constitution of the United States, and its democratic form of government.
Until it doesn't work. Then the real political vein within me starts pumping.
I don't really believe all men are created equal. I don't believe we can ever hope to treat all men equally. We have laws that are supposed to make us try, and we really should try, but the truth is, when ignorance takes over, as it has in the past decade, I don't give a hang for majority rule. Not when it borders on mob rule. I care for the opinions of people who use their senses, and that group will never be in the majority. Ever. Sense, which all of us wish would just be second nature to us all, has to fight to make it to the center of the glass, never mind rise to the top.
The two faced political standard that has been wrecking our lives lately never ceases to baffle me, long after I should have just accepted it at face value. Too many people want to be lied to, not told the truth. Tell the truth, as President Obama is more inclined to do than most politicians, and you can expect to be called a liar to your face. "Liar" is now the code word for "stop telling the truth! I'm trying to live my own political fantasy here!"
I get so frustrated with the majority's inability to face reality that I sometimes yearn for the old days. There are times when an absolute monarchy is a quick, simple, and efficient way to get things under control. I have fantasies myself - of McConnell, Boehner, Cantor and Ryan being reduced to severed heads displayed on some Washington bridge. And of Bachmann and Palin being sent to a nunnery. Bliss.
The fantasy does not last long. I'm still out here dealing with the reality of being unemployed. I don't want fantasies, I want solutions. I have noticed those are to be found among the politicians who are not spending much time in front of a microphone.
Go find them. They're the ones working long hours while the fantasy candidates are pretending to say something they really mean.
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Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
Comments
We Americans look no further than our televisions for answers to our problems. We blame politicians for our woes, yet We The People put them there.
I'm severely underemployed like yourself. I'm angry too. I'm just not looking around for a king.
Frankly, the notion that the “common man” or the “regular citizen” should have ANY say whatsoever in governance (with the exception of a small, quickly snuffed moment in ancient Greek history) has, for the most part, been regarded as absurd and untenable for most of humanity’s recorded history.
America actually is an experiment bent on determining whether the notion has any merit at all.
Well, either the notion has NO merit, or we were the wrong people to take on the assignment of assessing whether it does or not. It is NOT working very effectively here right now. Perhaps at some point in our recent past it was faring better, but ladies and gentlemen, this generation of Americans are pissing on the idea that the common person can truly make intelligent, reasonable, rational decisions about how a government ought to be run.
For me (and admittedly, just for me) I think we ought to be ashamed of ourselves for the way we have been conducting ourselves of late—and for what we have “contributed (!)” to this experiment. Yes, we have shamed ourselves with our pettiness and disregard for logic—and we ought to acknowledge that fact by being ashamed.
In any case, maybe it is not just we Americans who cannot make it work reasonably. Maybe “the common person” “the regular citizen” simply is not equipped intellectually nor philosophically for the job of participating as fully in governance as we want. Maybe it is an elitist function…maybe a nobility function…maybe a dictatorial function. Maybe no group of people could make democracy (or a representative Republic) actually work.