The Drama Of Creating Panic In Political Conversations
April 5th 2009 14:55
"You cannot bring prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
~ Rev. William J. H. Boetcker
You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
You cannot further brotherhood of men by inciting class hatred.
You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."
~ Rev. William J. H. Boetcker
In an age where saying the most dramatic, off the wall and eye popping statements is the only way to get attention, I feel the time has come to have a direct conversation about the extremes in modern political thought.
Centuries of arguments between the ideals of States Rights vs. Federalism reduced into single word sessions of name calling has allowed our society to diminish what these words truly mean.
It’s easy to deduce the entire Democratic philosophy into a group of socialists looking to bring the red scare back to our door step. By evoking images of a history that saw the absolute destruction of institutions of religion, bread lines that wrapped around city blocks and an “evil empire” bent on the destruction of the United States, the Republican spin machine has done nothing but tune out the general public from the real nightmares that are to come from actions in a modern Democratic agenda.
The fundamentals that are looking to pull public support for Health Care reform, eliminate poverty through working with banking companies to open up access to credit, root out corporate corruption by limiting executive pay, nationalize the auto & banking industries by doing direct power plays as to who heads each individual company (and how much money they make) and pulling funds into the middle class through a distribution of wealth are all part of the modern Democratic agenda.
Through years of depravity and coming out on the short end of the stick in the national conversation, certain members of the Democratic elite are also guilty of using scare tactics by casting years of Republican Party Oval Office power as responsible for our cold capitalistic society and solely to blame for the economic collapse due to their policies. This political agenda was achieved by shifting all the blame of what happens when raw capitalism runs amuck with government corruption and greed from the influences of special interests on the Republican Party.
The same greed that gave us the prosperity during the eight years of the Clinton regime, enabled the common man to rise up from squalor behind a computer screen in his mom’s basement to that of the status of a multi billionaire in the tech boom, and is the same prosperity told through billion dollar success stories of American history.
From Oil Barons to founders of clothing and food chains raw Capitalism is the reason for our prosperity.
Raw Capitalism that allowed our banking industry to run amuck with credit irresponsibility should be given the same balanced acknowledgment for our prosperity as well as our demise.
When it comes down to brass tax neither side is 100 % correct or 100% wrong in political structure and belief and need each other to create a balance in our imperfect system. As proven in history, over and over again, the acquisition of absolute power only brings out the worst in our society.
An example of this would be the Newt Gingrich lead Republican Congress who ran on the basis of bringing morality back to Washington and preserving American prosperity through reform of failed institutions of the federal government.
Through achievement of absolute power in Congress which eventually led to a sweep of the Oval office as well, this group became immoral within itself much like our current Democratic majority who is now looking to skirt around the tenants of the Constitution and change the economic rules of nature in a gamble to preserve their power for years to come.
When politicians stand up and propose policies like the “fairness doctrine” that interfere with free media, become directly involved in the promotion of certain religious groups over another, look to have the executive branch directly involved in the recreation of voting districts and is fixated on the federalization of the auto and banking industry regardless of results there has to come a point where a bi partisan voice of decency asks the question of, “What happened to our Constitution and way of life?”
We are slowly heading down a path where there will be no choice for our future leaders but to have full government control of all of our industries and the voice of dissent has been deemed irrelevant through their own actions of intolerance. The intolerance to simply label a man as a socialist in a McCarthyism fashion and have the audacity to believe that an America in pain would simply latch onto this word and see all the dangers to come based on a single “catch phrase” rather than having the will to hang onto a glimmer of hope for a better tomorrow.
No matter the party or fundamental belief, we need to find a way to frame our arguments differently before we destroy ourselves. With the path we’re on, the only thing I can see for the next 12-16 years is an “I told you so atmosphere” after every Congressional and Presidential election cycle.
The chorus has already begun singing on the term of President Obama and our current administration is doing nothing to weather the storm. Continuing to do the same things over and over again expecting different results is the simple definition of insanity and we’re acting like a nation of lunatics.
Going beyond the actions of a Congress and the Oval Office to continue to write blank checks and feed off of public anger when someone takes advantage of the system, we also have to look at the reaction by the opposition who have done nothing but calculate the points and prep their next superstars to run a power play in 2012.
The train we’re traveling on may have different conductors but the game will always be the same. Either we will continue to have leaders who are content in giving our country away until the well runs dry or this reign of terror will come to an end when it meets her Waterloo from a Conservative soldier who claims he or she is bringing morality back to the White House in a campaign based around God, Guns and rooting out the communists (oops, I meant socialists).
No matter the party, the name of the game is politics of fear. Fear of terrorists and those who are different from what we have grown accustomed to understand. Moderation has taken a back seat for fanaticism as we allow our hero’s to be excused from acts of lunacy so long as they are going to protect our individual beliefs in gun control, abortion or whatever is the hot topic of the week.
The clock is ticking and time is running out for us to get it right. For every time I hear a candidate called a socialist it frustrates me because the rhetoric makes me forget the true meaning of the word.
It almost feels like a gum ball we’re throwing at the wall in hopes that it will eventually stick and everyone will notice. The problem with this theory is within the fact that no one will notice until they put there hand on it or look at the bottom of their shoe.
For my Republican friends, I want you to remember a few short years ago when it was the Democratic conspiracy theorists who were screaming in the streets post 9-11 about a rush to war calling Bush stupid and a war monger but the public dismissed them as radicals…
The pendulum has swung your way and America is in the same situation of destroying her prosperity and world view by trying to force our misguided ideals on the rest of the world, but nobody is listening.
Once again, the world knows something we don’t…
Is it going to take a set of non existent weapons of mass destruction for us to see the folly of our ways, another trillion dollar gap in our deficit or maybe another trillion dollars borrowed from the worst purveyor of human rights abuse in world history before we truly get it?
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Comment by Brandt
Great stuff. I would have to agree. As a democratic-socialist, I cringe at the absolute decimation of this very real and thriving political viewpoint, one that promotes a bottom-to-top democracy run by it's citizens. I have a pretty well-reasoned skeptical view of the motivations of the elite, whatever the party they portend to be part of. I will check out the rest of your blog as well. Good to hear a voice from Stafford with conviction and strength. Keep it up man.
Brandt
Comment by Khalfani King
Politics and Culture
Khalfani King
Oldies but Goodies From Campaign 08
The Public as well as party leaders get wrapped up in the theory of "winners and losers" working so hard to "not be like" the other side evovlving into radical versions of their former selves...
I'm glad to see that there are more people out their who see the dangers in this and I appreciate your comments.