Thought For The Day - 09.28.08

“JFK and LBJ knew a thing or two about politics and governing. They understood with Solomon-like wisdom that, ‘there is a time to campaign, and a time to break off campaigning’.  It’s a leadership thing.”

 Americans are interesting people when it comes to politics and politicians.  We are proud of our freedoms and most of us are willing to die for them, yet we come out in very low numbers for elections, especially local elections, even when the results affect us directly and immediately. 

We hold the first amendment and freedom of speech close to our hearts but are usually hesitant to talk politics, in fear of offending someone, and are usually more worried about being politically correct than we are about having the wrong person elected or having a misguided proposition pass. 

We will tell our friends when they’ve made a fashion mistake or often even when they’ve chosen the wrong partner, but we hesitate to pass along information about candidates or their positions, even when we know our information is correct and our friend or associate is confused or uninformed.  Part of the process should be debate and discussion, and not only between the candidates. 

Americans also put their candidates and politicians on pedestals, and we want them to be perfect, while simultaneously wanting them to be just like us, an average Joe or Jane.  Which when you think about it, is obviously completely contradictory and impossible.  We want our candidates or have come from Middle America having shared in ‘every man’s common experiences’, yet we don’t want them to have had to accept any help or to be beholden to anyone through their process of election, which is less likely if they come from a background of means and connections, so again is naïve and almost impossible.  And while we do want them to have experienced what we all have, we are intolerant of any scandals or even the normal teenage and college behaviors that their generation experienced, in their backgrounds  We want them to be above that, better than the average, but not ‘above us’, again a total contradiction.  

We also want our politicians to be well educated, well spoken, polished and full of promise, yet very few of us take the time to really find out what they stand for; often leaning toward the candidate that sparkles instead of the candidate of substance.  And then when we do have a clear choice, including someone with experience, a good record, and perhaps even something special about them like heroism, exceptional service or records of charity or kindness, we decide to vote for the other person, with less experience, no or little record and maybe with even a questionable background.  And then when their promises turn out to be nothing more than rhetoric, we are disappointed with what we got. 

We vote for change when we want stability.   We wait for years for a female presidential or vice presidential candidate and then we don’t support their ticket.  We vote for the new guy, forgetting that we elected the Washington outsider last time and it didn’t work out so well.  And we feel proud and safe during uncertain times when represented by someone who we know that has dedicated their life to the service of our Country and then we support and even elect someone we don’t know that really doesn’t have a clue. 

It is probably a miracle that the experiment in self-government that we know as the United States has done as well as it has and is still around.  Perhaps it is time for us to get a clue!