I'm getting more and more angry at politicians grandstanding to and for their electorate, and seriously damaging the USA and its institutions in the process. This applies to both sides of the political aisle, and to everyone from the President, to Senators and Congressional representatives, to State and local governments, to (it seems) temporary acting unpaid deputy second assistant dog-catchers. The rot seems to have spread throughout our body politic.
If adults are supposed to be mature people, I venture to suggest that almost every politician we've got, Republican or Democrat, is not mature, and should be sent back to political and social kindergarten until they've learned how to behave. We expect kids to throw temper tantrums if their wishes and desires are thwarted. Witness children in the supermarket.
"Mommy, I want that chocolate bar!"
"No, you can't have it. You'll spoil your supper."
"WAAAAAHHH!"
Witness kids in a car.
"Mommy, Johnny touched me!"
"Johnny, stop that."
"But Jenny touched me first!"
"I don't care who touched who first - both of you, stop that!"
(Both kids, simultaneously) "WAAAAAHHH!"
Isn't that precisely what we're seeing from our politicians in Washington D.C. right now? "Impeach (name of politician)!" "No, charge (name of politician) with (the crime of the accuser's choice)!" "Investigate this bureaucrat!" "No, investigate the people who hired/tolerated/fired him!" Some politicians want this, or that, or the other thing, and threaten to hold other legislation or government business to ransom unless and until they get it. Others demand that the heads of their political opponents must roll, ignoring the fact that their own politicians are just as guilty, just as venal, just as corrupt, as those on the other side. It looks like nothing more than a pack of kids demanding to play with the American people's ball on their turf according to their rules, and denouncing as "Unfair!" anyone else's desire to do the same thing.
I don't know what the answer is. I suppose this may be the ultimate proof of Joseph de Maistre's maxim that "Every nation gets the government it deserves." (All I can say is, we must have done something awful bad to deserve the government we've got now!) I also suspect this proves H. L. Mencken was right when he said, "Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in." We've certainly got a prime gang of rascals in Washington right now - and that applies on both sides of the aisle. If the position of the Democratic and Republican parties were reversed tomorrow, in terms of who controls what elected body, I suspect we wouldn't see much practical difference at all.
One of the real tragedies of this situation is that good men and women increasingly avoid elected service to the people. I can't blame them. When they know that announcing their candidacy will instantly result in their being put under the partisan political microscope; their every thought, word and deed since birth will be analyzed to a fare-thee-well in the hunt for evidence about their views and positions; and their family life, personal privacy, and other assets will evaporate under the glare of the political spotlight - it's no wonder so many good, upright people won't even consider serving their country as legislators. What's more, the few good ones who are elected often become disillusioned or burned out, and quit rather than carry on trying to keep their heads above the fetid waters of the swamp. Those who don't quit, often become part of the problem as they abandon their principles and efforts to find a solution to it.
I begin to think that a constitutional convention might be the only way forward in terms of getting anything done in this country. Trouble is, that's a two-edged sword. There are principles like a balanced budget, term limits, and restrictions on the powers of government and their scope (in particular the shameless corrupting of the 'Commerce Clause' that both major parties have aided and abetted for decades) that I'd support in a heartbeat. Indeed, those principles appear to enjoy widespread support in this country from people of many political persuasions. However, activists on both sides would doubtless try to hijack the convention for their own purposes, to support or reject their favorite cause du jour. That would turn the convention into a circus to rival Congress or the Senate. Why . . . it might even give rise to the suspicion that our elected representatives, whoever and wherever they might be, are actually behaving in the same fractured, schizophrenic, irrational fashion as the people who elected them! If that's the case, a constitutional convention would be useless. It would only produce more of the same old, same old . . .
Somehow I envision Washington, Jefferson, Jackson and several other early Presidents looking down from on high at our present mess, shaking their heads, and calling loudly for more beer (or whatever their heavenly tipple might be). Perhaps strong drink is the only response left to us.
Peter
we must have done something awful bad to deserve the government we've got now
ReplyDeleteRoe v. Wade.
..."Perhaps strong drink is the only response left to us."...
ReplyDeleteI was supposed to wait until now?
Oops.
My great fear of a constitutional convention is that I can predict with fair certainty that there would be a concerted effort by certain factions to gut both the First and Second Amendments. Not that they've been paid more than lip service for a good many years, but organized groups at both ends of the political spectrum would dearly love to gain the ability to deny the freedoms protected by those simple statements.
ReplyDelete"we must have done something awful bad to deserve the government we've got now"
ReplyDeleteReally?
-1)We let women get in positions of authority. They govern by "feelings", not logic, not law, not reason, not even necessity.
-2) We sat on our asses while millions and millions of aliens were allowed to infest our nation, take our jobs, vote in our elections.
-3) We allowed a small religious minority to take control of our money, rob us blind and drive us into impossible debt, all the while letting us fight their wars for them.
Is that enough?
Or do you need more?
-4)We let an African Muslim romp through our government, our society, our culture for eight insane years.
-5)We sat by as the media - a white-male-hating collection of lunatics - Tell us what to think.
-6)We allowed our institutions of learning to be TOTALLY converged into nothing more than propaganda factories.
-7)We watched in a blind stupor as our Christian way of life was outlawed in our own cites and communities.
And now we continue to sit on our collective asses as our country is being invaded by a religion and its adherents that intend to convert or destroy every last one of us. At the same time, we worship a collection of mostly criminal anti-social dimwits that play games for us to watch and obsess over... and earn millions doing it.
Done something wrong?
No, Dad29, our problem is not that we have done "something awful bad", but that we have done NOTHING. None of this has been done BY us, but done TO us. as we sheepishly and stupidly ignored reality and focused on trivial things instead of minding the store.
Bejamin Franklin was (unfortunately) correct in concluding we could not, or would not, protect our freedom, our society, our culture or our nation.
So, in a sad and pitiful way, we have earned the government we have and the new America we are seeing born.
but what thew hell, there's game somewhere on TV you can go watch.
"...there's [a] game somewhere on TV you can go watch."
ReplyDeleteBob M.
What, exactly would you have us do? I hate sports, I don't watch TV, I read, and I vote - almost always for the most conservative candidate. I guess you want us to break out the rifles and start shooting random liberals? Is that it?
It is my opinion that Dad29 has it exactly right. A just God will not allow a country that has murdered 50 million innocent babies over the last 45 years to thrive. He will remove his protection and allow it to go its own way - which is EXACTLY what has happened since then.
(And by the way; for those of you who worship the "greatest generation", I would like to point out that those SC justices back in 73 were NOT boomers. Neither were the rest of the political leaders of that time.)
"If the position of the Democratic and Republican parties were reversed tomorrow, in terms of who controls what elected body, I suspect we wouldn't see much practical difference at all."
ReplyDeleteIf you really believe that, you're not as wise a man as I thought.
Amendment 28: "With the exception of sworn military service in the U.S Armed Forces, no one shall serve more than 18 years in government in the United States, nor shall there be remuneration of any type or form from government in the United States once service has been terminated, with the exception of medical services and retirement commensurate with rank in the U.S. Armed Forces; if service is in an elected office, no one shall serve more than two terms, or portions thereof, in any office and any such service shall constitute lifetime disqualification from receiving remuneration of any type or form from a government in the United States, with the exception of salary, benefits and retirement commensurate with sworn rank in the U.S. Armed Forces."
ReplyDeleteFeel free to improve as necessary.
Alphonse
I agree with Gorges.
ReplyDeleteWith adults, yes it DOES matter who started it. With politicians, yes they SHOULD get raked over the coals and punished for misconduct. With the media - we need to start re-imposing laws with regard to slander and libel. They don't even pretend to be impartial anymore, they don't fact check and their conduct defines the term 'deplorable'.
On the bright side, all this screaming and shrieking is actually a GOOD thing. It tells me that Trump IS draining that swamp, and that the various toads, flies and parasites that infest it - are getting scared.
"-3) We allowed a small religious minority to take control of our money, rob us blind and drive us into impossible debt, all the while letting us fight their wars for them."
ReplyDeleteBobM, why don't you take your rants about the JEWS back to stormfront and leave us alone?
Roy, I rarely chime in, prefer to lurk and think on what I see. But your post echoes, in its last point, a topic that has not gone well for me in several discussions. I will try to couch first before my point.
ReplyDeleteI would never reduce the achievements of the Greatest Generation. They saw a global necessity and answered the call. In a way that often demanded literally everything they had. Valiant beyond measure. ^^^ couch ^^^ vvv point vvv
To think that sending millions of teenagers and young adults to a foreign land, and expecting them to right the wrongs of humanity on their own ignores the reality. The command and control structure of Allied forces was led by men who had given their all in the same muddy forest-lands decades earlier. The armament and equipment used had been designed by similar aged people, based on lessons learned the very hard way.
One is not better than the other. The task required all to do their part together before victory was reached. That victory allowed us a near hedonistic level of freedom to try out new ideals, not all of them good.
From a different direction, one such discussion was on the often maligned Millenials. Granted a portion has directional problems, abetted by the generation before them. But another portion has been giving their all in the longest sustained Hostilities in our history. (Korea is unending, 65+y and counting, but level of open hostility does not compare.)
In the heat of that discussion, I as a Gen-x (hate that) declared to a Boomer, "My kids did not give rise to that ------! [edit for representation of language for Ms. Rodham-Clinton]
Thanks all for your time,
Paul
Paul,
ReplyDeletethe problem with your viewpoint about "the greatest generation" is that it is incomplete. Yes, they fought to save the world. And then they sat on their laurels, and ignored the very problems they went to war about. That was my parent's generation.
They did their job, thought they had won, and then walked away, expecting someone else to take their place. They stopped paying attention.
It appears that they were unable to see any relationship between cause and effect. Democrats continually got us involved in wars, and then proceeded to throw away our military after every one. They LITERALLY did this after WW2. 5 years later, we had trouble fighting the N Koreans because of this idiocy.
My father was voting for anti-gun politicians, while bitching about gun control. No clue that HE was part of the problem! Unfortunately, this mindless view of politics was passed on to too many of their children, the boomers.
America seems to have a history of waiting until things get really bad, and only then bearing down and fixing the problem. This is a really bad method to apply to any endeavor.
Hey Peter;
ReplyDeleteI will touch on several facets of your post and a good post it is. We as American citizens as a whole have been dumbed down beyond belief. I remembered seeing a civic lesson from the early 50's that was for 8th graders and I considered myself to be fairly educated and knowledgeable and that thing was hard. I blame a lot of the poor education on both the parents and the school. The ignorance is by design, research the "Frankfort School" and you will see what I mean. Also a constitutional convention...if they even had one would quickly become a circus for what ever mob was able to hijack the purpose especially since it would have to be held in the cities and most all cities are democratic strongholds and they can generate a "rent a mob" very quickly. Also as far as a constitutional convention goes...the Government ignores the constitution, they will just ignore the edicts of the constitutional convention and it would be business as usual.
"BobM, why don't you take your rants about the JEWS back to stormfront and leave us alone?"
ReplyDeleteLOL... That's not a rant, that's a fact. Who spent over a trillion dollars and over 4,000 lives stopping Saddam? And then had to go back? Israel? Get serious.
Who is most of our national debt owed to? Can you say "Federal Reserve Corporation? And what private citizens of what predominant nationality own the fed? Look it up. Quit hiding behind "anonymous".
By the way, who is this "us" you're talking about wanting to be "left alone"?
Will, thank you for addressing my points as you read them, without heaping onto them beyond your own views. I really appreciate that.
ReplyDeleteI do think there is a problem from the start in labeling generations as a unit. But to take them as a whole, on balance, I do not believe the Greatest actively ignored issues nor sought to destroy. I do believe many portions may simply been ignorant of predictable effects they could not foresee themselves; despite the efforts of others to explain what history had already shown time and again.
Being brave enough to stand in the line of fire and do what must be done, does not automatically bestow knowledge and insight. That does not reduce their heroism. And it does not excuse the individual policy decisions some took during peacetime that resulted in a weaker, more divided United States. Every vote cast (or not) is a policy decision even if it is the only contribution one person can make from their limited position.
On your points of critique: Yes any small post I make is going to be 'incomplete'; I think yours suffer the same limitations. No one has patience for dissertations in comments sections. Also, I think we all should plan to have someone replace our views. I for one am not immortal. That is why I influenced my children the best way I knew how. I hope they might even impress you, if you were to meet sometime down the road.
Thanks for the thoughtful treatment,
Paul
The problem with a convention is who will be attending it.
ReplyDeleteIt will be the paid political types (aka the swamp) and those on government assistance, people who have businesses to run, jobs to go to, etc will not be able to attend any convention. Even if such people initially take time off to attend, all the others have to do is to drag things out.
David Lang