I am shocked and dismayed by an all to common situation today. It seems that the topic of politics has become taboo, something not to be spoken of in common conversation. This is certainly not the America I studied in history and civics classes. In my America people demand the right to speak at length on such matters. As I always understood things, good citizenship not only gives us the right to speak out about bad government but actually requires us to participate at least to some degree in the conversation.
From what I can see people have become afraid to speak out or to speak at all. There is a fear of ‘offending’ someone, a fear of being ostracized for a contrary point of view and a fear that our voice no longer has any power to effect change. Sadly, from an outside perspective, it certainly seems that a small elite in politics have carefully engineered this situation over several decades. To be specific this group is made up of the lobbyist industry and a select few elite political figures in the leadership of both the Democratic and Republican parties.
There is a line from the movie The American President that expresses this so well, “...Donald Rumson doesn’t care about your problems. He is concerned with two things and two things only: Making you afraid of it and telling you who’s to blame for it! That ladies and Gentlemen is how you win elections!”
This is what I call the Politics of Fear. Mud slinging, character assassination political campaigns are intended to accomplish one thing: make you afraid of the opponent so that you will vote against them. And when Congress or the President want a particular piece of legislation they almost always use the same tactic to sway public opinion in favor of their position.
On the other side ‘they’ have gotten us to accept various ideals as social norms, ideals such as Political Correctness. The result being that now people are afraid to speak their minds honestly for fear of ‘offending’ someone. Folks, political correctness is nothing more or less than holding people hostage to someone else's feelings! Life can be hard sometimes, get used to it. And on that note here’s a hard truth, using fear to control and or manipulate a population in order to achieve one's own goals is the definition of Terrorism!
On a more positive note there is a way out of this mess and it lies entirely in our hands to exercise it if we so choose. Throughout history autocratic or dictatorial government has always feared one thing above all others, a well educated and informed populace. When such a population is pushed to far they will inevitably rise up and bring down such governments. Fortunately for us our system contains a mechanism that puts the power squarely in our hands to effect such a change without the need for a violent revolution. It is called a Convention of States and is part of Article V of the U.S.Constitution.
The importance of an educated populace is well demonstrated by the following extract from the Opinion of the Court in the landmark Supreme Court case Brown vs. the board of education (1954)
“Today, education is perhaps the most important function of state and local governments. Compulsory school attendance laws and the great expenditures for education both demonstrate our recognition of the importance of education to our democratic society.”
How many people today, under the age of 40, can even tell us what this case was about let alone why it is one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in American history?
To my earlier point about the power residing in our hands here is another basic truth. Power has always resided in the hands of the people, most especially when that populace is well educated. It is the people who do the work, produce the goods and services and bear the burden of taxes. Without us there can be no government or economy. The people are the power most especially when they possess the knowledge to understand that simple truth. The real question here is, can we come together as a common will and make the necessary change that will fix the current state of affairs? I prefer to believe that we can. History has shown this to be the true Greatness of America, our ability to set aside profound differences and act as a unified force when necessity requires it of us. And make no mistake boys and girls, that necessity is upon us.
The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution make it perfectly clear that We the People are the final authority in America and that it is our responsibility to hold formal government accountable. Will we choose to throw off our fear and take action?
In my next post I will discuss the single most critical failure point in our social/political system. I will also propose the simple and completely attainable solution to that problem. It really is a simple matter however implementing the solution will require our unified will and effort.
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A Ruler is someone who wears a mantle of Authority and only takes up responsibility when circumstances force them to...A leader is someone who wears a mantle of Responsibility and only takes up authority when situations require them to.