Politics and Culture - American Profiles In Radical Independence

“I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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The Question Of Absolute Power & What It Means For A Government Based On A Balance of Powers?

November 2nd 2008 16:38

"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

~Lord (John Emerich Edward Dalberg) Acton

Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.

~Edmund Burke

In three short days, the time will come to tear down the banners, take down the barb wire fences in thought that have been thrown up in this campaign season and ready ourselves for a new regime to take the oath office in January.

Cliché terms like "Out with the Old and In With the New" come to mind as many Americans have a vision of a complete government overhaul with a blue haze. According to the pollsters this haze is going to be lead by an Obama Presidency which will have the pleasure of passing bills with a Democratic Congress that will be unhindered by the Red Glow that has been cast over our Executive and Legislative branches for the past 28 years.

Some would even go so far as to say that we have no need for Republicans in office at all because everything they stand for is wrong and that Democratic Party doctrine should be the one prevailing form of Government for all time and the thoughts, opinions and dreams of the Republican voter coast to coast doesn't matter simply because Democrats will either have 90% control of Government in early 2009 or will control 2/3 of our branches of government that control our Federal Beauracracy.

To the people that are drinking the Kool-Aid with the thought of Democratic absolute power resulting in an American Utopia, I am here to offer a word of caution as we proceed as a nation.

These words of caution are in reference to the stain that the absolute power of a Republican lead House, Senate and Presidency have left on our nation. The problems of this structural domination didn't come in the forms of a fallen government or fist fights on the floors of Congress but it laid the ground work for the grid lock we have in the halls of Federal Government today.

When Newt Gingrich lead the charge to bring morality back to Capitol Hill it began the domino effect of Republican domination that wasn't rooted in government working more efficiently, fixing our schools or paying off the deficit but was rather in the mode of "My way of political thought, what I believe and how I live my personal life is right and everything you stand for is wrong".

With all the words Obama preached early in the campaign season about rising above partisanship and working with the other side…

I am forced to visit the realities of this never having a chance to happen because there will be no other side to work with if he does get the keys to the Oval Office.

Through systematic destruction built on political strategy the Republican Congressional voice will be mute to none leaving the Millions of Americans who stand strong against the tenants of Federalism without a voice as the Democratic Party is set to assume massive amounts of power without the "conscience" from the other side to balance out the power structure in Washington.

It's easy to talk about working with the other side when things are 50/50 but once total domination is achieved these campaign promises always prove hallow when faced with the realities of the moment.

Every Republican's conspiracy theory and worst dream is rooted in this theory and it only aides the pendulum that has continuously swung throughout our nation's history of 2 party politics. Once it swings too far one way or the other it is only forced to jerk and swing back twice as hard in the next election cycle.

Our history teaches us that this is the root of fanaticism and the proof is in the pudding this election season. The time is now for the Democrats to step back if they do achieve a mass victory and to embrace the minority who talked down to them and shut their ears to the words of compromise of proper representation in Government.

This is what needs to be done but based on the fact that the same characters who participated in the bloody wars of partisanship of the 00's, 90's and 80's are still holding office in Congress and will only increase their numbers to maintain the strangle hold on their leadership posts, this will ultimately be an impossibility.

What I do see happening in the words of Barack Obama is "More of the same" no matter how you slice this Presidential election up.

Even with all of the good will McCain has built on both sides of the aisle, my fear is that a win would be misconstrued as stolen from Obama. This would fire up the camps of fanaticism to begin a campaign to block any Presidential lead legislations and conversely an Obama Presidency with a structurally dominant Democratic Congress, will only lead to the absolute corruption of Government and another pendulum swing in 2-4 years with a Republican Party restructuring away from the middle, as they seek out candidates that brought glory to the party from the Far right rather than candidates in the middle like John McCain who has needlessly had to struggle to keep the party together.

The train is coming and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it except for the players we elected to cast votes in Congress in representation of the people and are supposed to work for the betterment of the nation and not their party. I would love to sit here and say it was up to us to elect leaders that inspire and will work with the other side but the more I listen to the jargon and catch phrases the more I realize that our problems are in Congress and those problems are not going away due to the extreme polarization of their constituencies.

This is never going to change because they represent the worst partisan parts of our nation on both sides and the only change can come when we elect our Executive leaders as they are the only nationally representative pieces of our Government that we have direct control over.

As long as we elect our leaders based on the things that are not going to change without a major upheaval along the realms of social values, race, gender and religion the more our Oval Office will resemble the gridlock we will always have on Capitol Hill and the Pendulum will continue gaining momentum until something happens that is so bad we will finally wake up out of our blue and red induced comas….

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