“I would remind you, that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And . . . moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
— Barry Goldwater
The perpetual acrimonious spitting match between petty partisan hacks continues ad nauseum. "Us" versus "Them" fights move along fueled by bile and inertia cranking out fodder for talk radio and the cable news circus.
Meanwhile, clear and present dangers threaten us daily and our elected officials chronically demonstrate malfeasance, incompetence, and myopia.
Politics is supposed to be the art of compromise. However, increasingly, the art has been reduced to a two-dimensional blood sport skill set as partisan factions become more and more recalcitrant in clinging to the gospel according to "them." It may be cool for building and maintaining audiences for talk radio and the cable news shows, but it doesn’t do jack for protecting us.
Groucho Marx wasn’t just being funny when he said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”
Compromise dictates adversaries give a little to get a little. Neither side gets everything they want and supposedly the greater good is serviced with gray replacing black or white. Today’s politicians must have missed that day in class.
Now (more than ever) the country needs men and women capable and willing to fulfill their oaths of office . . . and provide the necessary national security.
Notwithstanding the bitter rancor intensified by the 2008 Presidential campaign, there are several for real threats to our national security that are imperatives: China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, and the non-geocentric ubiquitous threat of international Islamofacist terrorists…
However in the Nancy Pelosi/Karl Rove world partisan points trump national security.
North Korea has agreed to disable their nuke program this year http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2007-09-02T171751Z_01_L31907020_RTRUKOC_0_US-KOREA-NORTH-USA.xml&src=rss&rpc=22&sp=true . They are lying . . . again. A review of the timeline http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/20/nkorea.timeline.nuclear/ of nuclear weapons development in North Korea shows they have been playing us like Yo-Yo Ma plays a cello while China smiles into their tea.
Iran’s nut-job tieless president claims Iran is now running 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium for its nuke program. http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8RDEVK80&show_article=1It has been reported the Pentagon has a three-day blitz plan for Iran http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2369001.ece The China threat is serious as a heart attack. John Locke once said, "I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreter of their thoughts." Communist China, has been, is, and will remain, an enemy of the United States. http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/18/120950.shtml In order for the partisan pusillanimous pettiness to persist, we need to maintain at least the structure of the republic if not the substance. If our elected official’s dereliction isn’t mitigated they won’t even maintain the forum to play their spiteful games.
Regardless of whatever discordant dialog politicians practice, our enemies (and they are many and very very real) will continue their agendas to undermine, and attempt to destroy us.
We desperately need statesman capable and willing to realistically identify our strengths and weaknesses, quantify opportunities and threats, and agree to agree to what is best for the nation.
The serial failures of our elected officials are largely a function of ego and laziness. Ego on the part of pols who assume a pretentious sense of entitlement and laziness on the part of we the people for not making the time or effort to hold them accountable for what they do and don’t do.
Congress currently has an approval rating lower than whale excrement yet incumbents continue to rule (and muck things up even more). Invariably, if you ask voters about Congress they respond, “They are ALL no good so and sos . . . except MY guy/gal.” And thusly all those "no good so and sos" continue to get reelected.
Edward Langley was right when he said, “What his country needs are more unemployed politicians.”
However, Congress and the political class are not solely responsible for our dire straits. Out mainstream media is for sure an unindicted co-conspirator. Joseph Pulitzer once suggested, “A cynical, mercenary, demagogic press will product in time a people base as itself.” Guess what Joe? It has happened.
The last line in the Declaration of Independence reads, “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor”
It is a great sadness that not only do not contemporary politicians write or speak like that…they no longer appear capable of thinking like that.
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