Democracy Rocks
Have polticians on the national level only relatively recently begun to behave like a bunch of schoolyard rowdies and whiners, their so-called discourse never far from the "are too, am not," sparring of sixth-graders? I prefer to think it's always been this way. It's just that now we have virtually instant news, with blogs and YouTube helping to keep the stench of governance immediately beneath our noses. If the farcical goings on in Congress and the White House are something new, then we're in desperate trouble. If it's been happening pretty much this way since Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamlton faced each other across a freshly-mown lawn with pistols at dawn, then maybe we can survive as a nation. Our politicians haven't been shooting each other lately. Yet. There's still hope for us.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:10 AM
4 Comments:
John, this one is one of your best indeed, perfect comp, well defined and great expressions.
I have long grown weary of all the back biting and fighting among our politicans. I am not sure that they even have the maturity of a kindergartener at this stage, says she with huge sigh.
Perfect commentary of course.
My chief political regret is that we Americans tend to bypass our most statesman-like candidates in favor of those who appear more bellicose and/or photogenic. The meme of the sagacious as wimpy could, quite possibly, be an offshoot of our homophobia.
I've always been drawn to the Philosopher King template, despite its autocratic edges. When Mario Cuomo shut down the engines on the jet waiting to deliver his last-minute candidacy filing, I was depressed for months. Apparently, he is now content to watch his garden grow. But, then, what made me even think we might elect someone who can quote Seneca -- in Latin!
To quote the great Levant once again:
"The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too."
Or as Adlai Stevenson said upon accepting the presidential nomination in 1956, "the idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal is the ultimate indignity for the democratic process."
I agree. ixthvs, that Cuomo would have made a great president, but think of the "Swift boating" that would have gone on, doing everything possible to sink him. More than anything else, I think, he wanted out of the whole dysfunctional process.
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