George Bernard Shaw observed, "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it."
Today I heard Mitt Romney say he is convinced of American exceptionalism--that we are different and better than all other countries on earth.
Abraham Lincoln called America the last best hope of mankind, but when he said that he was speaking of a country which was the only true democracy on the planet. England was evolving into a constitutional monarchy, but, for the most part, the American experiment was the first real, large scale effort to forge a republic, "If you can keep it," as Benjamin Franklin said.
Lincoln called himself a Republican. He would be appalled to see the Republicans of today--John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney. These are men who would say the slaves would free themselves if only government regulations did not constrain them.
Lincoln called himself a Republican. He would be appalled to see the Republicans of today--John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney. These are men who would say the slaves would free themselves if only government regulations did not constrain them.
But, to go back to GB Shaw, "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."
And we have been discovering just how little we deserve a good government lately.
What I cannot understand is why we are so undeserving, what makes us so stupid that Rush Limbaugh is a man who commands the attention and adulation of 15 million listeners daily.
During the Civil War, soldiers who were educated, if at all, in one room school houses looked at their choices, looked back over three years of dreadful carnage and did not choose to vote for the glamorous George McClellan, but they voted for Lincoln. They chose well, but why? How did they reason and reach the decision that saved the Republic? Could our soldiers, will our citizens be able to see through the wall of lies to the truth?
I am not sanguine.
Part of the argument this time is not about union or slavery or even rape or contraception and abortion. It's about the economy. The Republicans persist in selling the idea that all we need to do is to reduce taxes and, like pixie dust, everything after that will miraculously turn happy.
They will trot out economists to say it's all true.
But, as GBS remarked: "If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion."
Shaw's quote that we essentially get the government we deserve was certainly borne out during the Bush years..So how do you stop the middle class lemmings from once more hurling themselves from the cliff? I had thought by now some sense of self preservation or ability to identify the obvious and the truth would have kicked in. However, the latest polls would indicate that is not the case. Tonight a new poll indicated that 52% of voters feel Romney favors the 1% and 38% feel he favors the middle class, yet the polling of who people are choosing to vote for don't reflect this disparity.Even though many voters acknowledge,correctly, that they are not Mitt's priority he still has their vote.The "helping out the job creators helps us all" fable appears to be a success. There is no mystery as to why the top 1% and the religous right would prefer Romney. For the 1% it really is in their best interest financially to do so and as for the religous right--the Republicans have always been more open to the crazy talk.
ReplyDeleteWhy more of the middle class can't decipher what's in their best interest is still a bit baffling. Despite their sources of "news"(Rush,Fox) I still would have thought, at least for some, common sense would prevail. Apparently not.
Perception is a strange creature.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if I knew John Kennedy, who lived less than 10 miles away when I was growing up outside Washington, DC, but I never saw the man in the flesh. He is no more real to me than Omar Little, a man who never actually lived, except in the imagination of writers and viewers of The Wire. But, when you get right down to it, they are both only images on a TV screen. So is Mitt Romney and , for that matter, President Obama.
--Mad Dog