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Saturday, January 21, 2006 Care to dance?
Discussing politics is kind of like doing the samba in a closet. What should be a roomy discussion -- with the opportunity to go far afield into areas such as trust, philosophy, finance, death, fairness, equality, futurism -- is a cramped bit of business that looks more like hand-to-hand combat than political discourse.
Case in point: I scratch my head over conservative Republicans and their Bush/Reagan uber alles support of people and administrations who actively flout their supposed ideals of "honest government" (Rusty Cunningham); "smaller government" (George W. Bush); "fiscal responsibility" (Bush, DeLay, Hastert et al) and "social conservatism" (a pro-gay Dick Cheney). Notwithstanding, their social conservatism as I interpret its meaning, is American Facism, I am suprised at the fervor with which social conservatives support their champions. Why? A more reasonable strategy would be to scatter support amongst candidates who more perfectly reflect a voter's prevailing beliefs. But, we don't do that. Not only do we avoiod taking the time to peruse individuals, we limit the conversation so much -- cramp it in a closet as it were -- that we're not even talking "governance," we're always talking "politics." That is the height of stupidity as a voting body. We are broadcasting our need to be manipulated by politicians whose singular strength is to manipulate. Am I the only one who is amazed by push polling? Or assassinations from above via the Predator? Or, "stealth" candidates? Or, promises that are ROUTINELY broken? Or, giving a series of emphatic rationales for war -- until one of them sticks? That is the province of politics. But, governance is about how a bunch of disparate, pushy, occasionally frightened Americans -- living in world that is mostly non-American -- can pull together and make a reasonable society that does good things for itself, its people and the world. Right now, through ill-advised wars, death penalties, police violence and clandestine "intelligence" operations, America is a leading killer of Americans. That's not right. But, conservatives who run the country are not talking about anything substantive locally, nationally or globally about improving quality of life for all (what else is government for?). Conservatives want to make money and to hell (literally) with anyone who isn't them. On the flip side, after reading the posts in this blog and reading some recommended material, I am beginning to believe there is virtually no true, liberal power element in either of the national parties. Nancy Pelosi's "concession" speeches after the 2004 election were a key indicator. She was floating the notion that the Dems needed to be more like the GOP to get more voters. Another indicator was that the "liberals" on the Supreme Court voted in favor of super-charged eminent domain. Well, Nancy, in your political utopia you're probably going to want to kick out pretty much every African American in the party. Still, given the "political" success of the conservatives, I can see why you want to go there. If we don't start talking about governance instead of quotas, gay marriage, abortion, affirmative action and a bunch of other issues -- we deserve what we get. I love the African American viewpoint, because it really is about helping the least fortunate among us. Regardless of whether that is because it represents many of us, it is STILL the true test of a democratic government to raise the quality of life for ALL of its members. With true discourse, a conservative can change his or her dance partner just as easily as liberal because we would get beyond the BS the parties are distracting us with and start questioning why incumbents never lose, term limits are never passed and why federal public servants are becoming millionaires and billionaires. Care to dance? 1 Comments:
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