The title of this post sounds a lot like a high school essay assignment, and in some ways I feel like it could be. Election 2016 has much in common with adolescence-from the nasty name calling to the easily debunked fallacies, from the widespread rumors to the false friendships- that it would be more appropriate as a class election than one for the leader of this country. Yet as I realize this truth, I also finally understand that this election cycle deserves more than just contempt. Instead, Election 2016 should be celebrated, for in this election the fallacy of American excellence has finally been laid bare for all to see. The notion that American democracy is pure, that American voters are responsible, that Americans  want decent leaders, and that Americans as a people value equality, respect, tolerance, progress, and basic human goodness….all those ideals have been exposed as little more than window dressing at a bankruptcy liquidation sale.

We’ve known for some time now that our politics are broken. We’ve known that our media is corrupted. We’ve known that equality as an ideal we’re far from realizing. We’ve known all this and yet been pretending the opposite is the truth, blaming “the other side” as the cause of all misinformation and negativity while lapping up the same drivel from our own “truth bringers” as we demonize those who support whatever we don’t personally abide. These things didn’t happen overnight, but Election 2016 bubbled them all up to the surface in such a way as to force anyone paying attention to either admit that everything is broken or be exposed as a total tool living in a house of cards.

Republicans can no longer deny that their base is heavily populated by racists, bigots, hypocrites and liars.

Democrats can no longer deny that their base is heavily populated by nepotists, apologists, hypocrites and liars.

Libertarians, Greens, and Independents can’t deny that their groups are heavily populated by contrarians, deniers, excusers, hypocrites and liars.

The media can no longer pretend to be unbiased, truthful, thoughtful or investigative.

And America can no longer pretend to hold the high ground when it comes to democracy.

“Hold on there partner!” you might be saying to yourself as you read my condemnation of nearly every person around. I’m a (insert political persuasion here) and I’m not a (insert negative attribute here). Take a good long look in the mirror. Yes you are. And so am I if the truth is to be told.

We are all guilty of one or more of the aspects I’ve associated with the political persuasions listed above- and in some cases it’s just a part of human nature. At some point or another we have all told a lie or been part of a hypocritical conflict, decrying the position or behavior of another while secretly indulging our own internal demons. And while we’re not all racists, bigots, nepotists or contrarians, this election has exposed that a vast percentage of America is one or more of those things. We’re an unruly mob of ugliness when it comes to politics, and in some cases, when it comes to our deep beliefs too.

How else can you explain the tacit acceptance of the filth that Donald Trump puts forth daily? How else can you explain the ability to brush aside the barely legal activities of Hillary Clinton? How else can you explain the unrealistic positions of Johnson or Stein? How else can you explain the wavering of the great mass of “undecideds” who will throw in behind one of these candidates? When Hillary Clinton spoke of baskets of deplorable she should have included more than just the supporters of Trump- she should have included us all and put herself, Trump, and the other candidates at the top of the heap.

Listen, nobody is perfect, and I’m not expecting them to be, but let’s at least be honest with ourselves and recognize that what seems like a vile departure from decency is really just an unvarnished look behind the mask of who we really are. You can’t consider yourself a good religious person and then reduce the behavior of the two main candidates as mere foibles while decrying the other one as “the destruction of all that America stands for.” You can’t consider yourself to be intellectually honest and then craft excuses about why certain behavior should be overlooked because “that’s how it’s done” or “well the other side did it first.” What we have to recognize here, and to say out loud, is that America needs an intervention or we really will become that proverbial demagogue of international humanity.

It’s time to step back from our self-imposed brinksmanship and accept that we need to become better people. It’s time to stop making excuses for each other’s worst behavior while fomenting our own discord. It’s time to put an end to divisive politics for sure, but also to divisive living in general.

It;s OK to disagree on the amount of and proper use of taxes. It’s OK to debate whether or not we should provide support to other countries or explore outer space or how to educate our children or protect our citizens.

But it’s not OK to devalue each other based on race or gender or sexual orientation or personal religious beliefs. It’s not OK to support others who would divide us for their own personal gain. It’s not OK to turn away from the hypocrisy others only to embrace it for yourself.

All these things have been boiling under the surface of our “polite society” for far too long. Finally, thanks to the 2016 Presidential Election, we are seeing ourselves for who we are. It’s not a pretty picture and we have some serious work to do moving ahead. Our next president is going to be someone none of us should admire. Deal with it. But let’s perhaps take the next four years to actually make ourselves better-as people, as parties, as a country. Let’s work on us, and demand better than this from our leadership- political leaders, business leaders, spiritual leaders-and come back as a better country altogether.

Obama rightly debased the rationale of the previous administration for many of the actions they took over the last 8 years, but he did so in a way that was not (to me at least) designed to inflame partisan passions. Rather, he presented this information as a way to cause us to reflect on what America is supposed to be, how it was designed by our framers, and how it can be so easily derailed by weak minded officials faced with problems too big for them to handle and hard nosed ideologues whose only goal is to exert unopposable power without regard to moral and legal right and wrong. Obama also spread the blame for the savage departure from American values and ideals of the last 8 years to all politicians left and right-for the truth of the matter is that we, the American people, were let down on all sides by cowardly politicians and even more cowardly bullies. For 8 years, our elected officials threw out their responsibilities of due diligence and oversight in favor of political posturing. The actions, and inactions, of those who held elective office during the Bush administration and helped create the national nightmare or did nothing to prevent the fall into the abyss, has caused this country great harm both domestically and abroad. The blame is shouldered equally, and recent partisan bickering only further cements this as fact, for those who protest to their own defense most loudly are likely also those whose actions may seem most detestable.

“Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions. And I believe that those decisions were motivated by a sincere desire to protect the American people. But I also believe that – too often – our government made decisions based upon fear rather than foresight, and all too often trimmed facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions. Instead of strategically applying our power and our principles, we too often set those principles aside as luxuries that we could no longer afford. And in this season of fear, too many of us – Democrats and Republicans; politicians, journalists and citizens – fell silent.

In other words, we went off course. And this is not my assessment alone. It was an assessment that was shared by the American people, who nominated candidates for President from both major parties who, despite our many differences, called for a new approach – one that rejected torture, and recognized the imperative of closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay.” (Obama-5-21-09)

Obama has a tough road ahead. Calls from the left scream for investigations and “truth” commissions. Calls from the right demand an “end to persecution.” This balance is hard to manage while retaining the desire to right the wrongs of American governance. But again, Obama takes the right path, for he is the president, not the judge and jury of this nation. While recognizing the wrongs committed in our names, he also understands that to rectify those wrongs requires a return to rationality and legal principals that this country was founded on. It is not for the president to declare guilt or innocence or to demand trials for grevious wrongs done in the name of “freedom.” That is why we have a Justice Department and a court system and a Congress with investigatory powers. By promoting direct legal action, Obama would be unnecessarily politicizing what is in effect a legal matter, albeit one that goes to the heart of what it means to be America.

“That is what I mean when I say that we need to focus on the future. I recognize that many still have a strong desire to focus on the past. When it comes to the actions of the last eight years, some Americans are angry; others want to re-fight debates that have been settled, most clearly at the ballot box in November. And I know that these debates lead directly to a call for a fuller accounting, perhaps through an Independent Commission.I have opposed the creation of such a Commission because I believe that our existing democratic institutions are strong enough to deliver accountability. The Congress can review abuses of our values, and there are ongoing inquiries by the Congress into matters like enhanced interrogation techniques. The Department of Justice and our courts can work through and punish any violations of our laws.

I understand that it is no secret that there is a tendency in Washington to spend our time pointing fingers at one another. And our media culture feeds the impulses that lead to a good fight. Nothing will contribute more to that than an extended re-litigation of the last eight years. Already, we have seen how that kind of effort only leads those in Washington to different sides laying blame, and can distract us from focusing our time, our effort, and our politics on the challenges of the future.

We see that, above all, in how the recent debate has been obscured by two opposite and absolutist ends. On one side of the spectrum, there are those who make little allowance for the unique challenges posed by terrorism, and who would almost never put national security over transparency. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who embrace a view that can be summarized in two words: “anything goes.” Their arguments suggest that the ends of fighting terrorism can be used to justify any means, and that the President should have blanket authority to do whatever he wants – provided that it is a President with whom they agree.

Both sides may be sincere in their views, but neither side is right. The American people are not absolutist, and they don’t elect us to impose a rigid ideology on our problems. They know that we need not sacrifice our security for our values, nor sacrifice our values for our security, so long as we approach difficult questions with honesty, and care, and a dose of common sense. That, after all, is the unique genius of America. That is the challenge laid down by our Constitution. That has been the source of our strength through the ages. That is what makes the United States of America different as a nation.” (Obama 5-21-09)

At the end of the day, it’s not just what he says that marks this president as a class above his predecessor, but the way he says it, and the way he understands his role in American government. Obama embodies the difference between being president and being presidential- a difference as marked as that between being the class leader and the class bully. Perhaps the juxtaposition of these two quotes is the best illustration of all.

“I’m the decider, and I decide what’s best.” George W. Bush

“In our system of checks and balances, someone must always watch over the watchers – especially when it comes to sensitive information.” – Barack Obama

It’s nice to have a real leader back at the helm.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)

I’ve voted at the same location for over five years. In those five years, I can not ever remember seeing more than about ten people at the poll at the same time as I was there. This morning I showed up at 6:57 AM and was greeted by a line of at least 60 people waiting to vote. As I got into the line, I couldn’t help but think to myself that this election was indeed something special. Oh sure, the media has portrayed this as an election like no other, and this is certainly true, if only because of the historic nature of the candidates. But it dawned on me that it was more than that.

The poll worker told me this morning that our small precinct usually was lucky to have about 23% voter turnout at any election. Today is going to be a record breaker.

As I waited in the line to get my ballot, I had a pleasant conversation with a man who originally comes from Arkansas. We wiled the time away with small talk and stories of our experiences. He was there with a relative, a first time voter who was excited to cast her first ballot. People in front and in back of me were smiling, actually happy to see a line at the poll, and no one was grumbling about the wait-a wait they have never experienced at this polling location before. To top it off, it’s raining buckets here today in Southern California, something that always makes the “beautiful people” a bit frumpy. Even the rain couldn’t dampen the spirits of an electorate ready to make history.

As we neared the table where we got our ballots, my line companion said something to me that made me think about how far we’ve come in this country. He told me that back where he came from, a small town in Arkansas, when he was a kid, people like him and me would never be seen laughing and smiling and shooting the breeze together. I said that maybe we would, but there probably wouldn’t be a bunch of smiling faces around us. At that he smiled and agreed. He was black; I am white.

It’s an historic election to be sure. The fate of our country is literally at stake after eight years of destructive policies and malevolent stewardship. The people of America know this and are coming out in droves to make their voices heard.

I remember when I first voted in a presidential election. I felt proud to mark my ballot for Bill Clinton. Back then it felt like I was helping to “change the guard” by putting a younger man in the highest office in the land. I was pretty happy with Clinton as president, but his was no groundbreaking administration, his challenges not so daunting compared to ours today. In retrospect, I think that my feelings in that election were more about me, about finally being able to be part of “adult America.” Today I felt different. Today, this election, and my part in it, was not about writing a page in my personal history. Today’s election is all about us. This will be the election to remember. This is the one that counts.

If you haven’t voted yet, go vote. If you’ve already voted, thank you. See you on the other side.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)

Taking a cue from the King of Made-Up Reality, George W. Bush, the GOP and their candidates have unleashed an alternate reality that they want all Americans to believe.

King George has spent the last 8 years not listening to reality. According to Bush, the economy is fine, Iraq was the best place to target terrorism, nepotism makes for the best government, drilling for off shore oil will bring gas prices down immediately, and massive debt is what future generations of Americans really want and need.

GOP heir-apparent John McCain has so much trouble with the truth that he hasn’t spoken realistically for months. According to McCain, the middle class consists of people who make about $250,000 a year, being a maverick means bucking the party line as much as 10% of the time, POW and POTUS are really interchangable, and his VP choice is someone who hates earmarks as much as he claims to.

The newest member of the GOP glamour gang is Sarah Palin who wouldn’t know reality if it bit her in the knee. According to Palin, abstinance education really works and is the only method worth teaching, God rejoices over pipelines, and that shooting animals from an airplane is the only sporting way to hunt for your trophies.

SEE NO REALITY.  HEAR NO REALITY.  SPEAK NO REALITY.

Better yet…just make up your own reality and repeat it over and over and over again.

You want reality? Here is the reality that the 21st century GOP has brought to America.

Iraq War…torture…gross mismanagement of funds…record deficits…corporate malfeasance…Dick Cheney…Katrina…cronyism…Donald Rumsfeld…economic meltdown…anti-science…politicization of government agencies…Terry Schiavo fiasco…Alberto Gonzales…high unemployment…outsourcing to mercenaries…swiftboating of politics…Iranian nukes…tension with Russia…John Ashcroft…Walter Reed Medical Center…domestic spying…massive future debt…Condi Rice…bankrupted state treasuries…national security theater…Samuel Alito…billions of dollars sent to Pakistan and nothing to show for it…bin Laden still at large…skyrocketing energy costs…widening income gap between rich and poor…Harriet Myers…suspended endangered species act…denial of environmental crisis…The Bridge To Nowhere…foreign distrust…falling dollar value…Karl Rove…tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans…nuclear proliferation…biggest expansion of government in generations and nothing to show for it…Tom DeLay…attorneygate…power to the lobbyists…religious disharmony…

And that’s just the “easy to identify” list. Some say reality is what you make it. This is the reality that the GOP has made in America. Is this the reality you want for another four years or more?

McCain/Palin are now promising change. They lie. The only change they seek is more regressive social and economic policies for Americans. The only change they desire is more debt and war and religiously based laws. The only change we can count on from them is even more government bullying and lies. That is the reality they can promise and that you can expect from the GOP.

If reality really is what we make it, it’s time for a new reality.

(cross posted at Bring It On!)

Hope is an emotion that fosters progress, and it is evident that American hope has served us well as we rose from a small, agrarian country to become the most powerful in the world. Powerful not just militarily, but also economically, technologically, and culturally. Throughout our history, we have had ample opportunities to let that spirit of hope die. But instead of falling victim to melancholy, America rallied back after the Civil War and the Great Depression and Pearl Harbor. We rebuilt our nation time and again and became stronger from our suffering, rising from the ashes of despair because throughout it all, we held on to our national spirit of hope. We were able to hold on to our hope because we had leaders who offered us hope in their words and in their actions. Their words of hope became reality as we worked together to achieve a common goal. We vanquished the enemies of freedom and democracy and carried forth a message of hope for all people. Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, those words and deeds transformed the 20th century into the greatest time of prosperity in the history of mankind.

Hope is a powerful motivator. With hope, a person can overcome many obstacles. With hope, a person can foresee a better future. With hope, individual growth benefits the entirety of society.

Sadly, as we begin the 21st century, the predominant emotion in America is no longer hope. It is fear. And fear is a powerful motivator too. Fear makes us give up our freedom. Fear makes us forget our values. Fear makes us lose trust in each other. And fear builds on itself.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks against America, many Americans were surprised to learn about a new enemy who not only hated us, but wanted to destroy our way of life, and had the means to do so, at least incrementally. After years of continued prosperity and peace, combined with a growing attitude of entitlement and cultural isolation, average Americans woke up on that day with a new realization of the world outside our own borders. America was attacked at home, and the terror we had heretofore only read about in the papers was in our backyard. Fear reared its ugly head. But even as ordinary citizens tried to put life back together, to put the fear behind them and rise from the destruction and reclaim a sense of normalcy, the Bush Administration, guided by their neo-con warmongers and evangelical Christian base, found in the attacks an opportunity to pursue their agenda of advancing their prophecies and ideology and exploited our fear.

This is not to say that we do not have a legitimate security concern to pay attention to and deal with. Indeed, America and the entire western world are now firmly locked again in the centuries old conflict between religious cultures and ideology. And in a very real sense, the future of our freedom and democracy hang in the balance as this open-ended conflict rages on. Still, in our atmosphere of non-stop fear, we have lost focus of the real battle being waged, getting sidetracked as the administration seeks to find lateral enemies, expanding the conflict and increasing their fear-based reality. But America has faced fierce enemies before, and our success over them did not come from an endless fear of destruction, but instead from our enduring fount of hope.

Religion and it’s promise of a glorious afterlife is supposed to alleviate the fear of dying, and theoretically, the evangelical base of the administration’s supporters look forward to the apocalypse so that they can be with their god. Actions, though, speak louder than words, and many of the most vocal among the evangelicals make every attempt to avoid the possibility of death for their cause. They would rather someone else did the dying for them as they continue to spread their message of doom. Religion uses fear to increase membership, increase their political power, and create a strict Christian society. And though they don’t submit to violent terrorist acts to advance their goals, they have no problem rolling back the individual protections guaranteed in the Constitution if it helps their cause. Because even though the Christian religion is based on the concept of individual choice (i.e. you can choose whether or not to walk a righteous path), the practice of its followers is to condemn those who choose a path other than Christianity. Our president claims to be an evangelical Christian himself, and the use of fear is familiar to his line of reasoning.

Government is also exploiting our legitimate fear of enemy attacks into an excuse to abridge freedom and bypass the rule of law. If the enemy seeks to destroy our freedom and democracy, and this administration, under the guise of protecting us from our fears, takes away our freedoms and ignores the rule of law, then the enemy wins a small victory without even having to fight. Indeed, the actions of this administration have given the enemy a victory without even realizing it. As it now stands, we have an actual enemy who wants to kill us, and an enemy in our own government that wants to limit our hard fought freedoms in the name of security.

The politics of fear have not made us any safer in our fight against radical terrorism. The politics of fear have not increased the prosperity of this country. If anything, the increased attention paid to fear has caused this country to regress and divide. Fear did not defeat the Nazi’s or the Japanese. Fear did not fix a shattered economy. Fear did not end slavery.

Under the blanket of perpetual fear, we don’t see what we are losing and what is being taken from us. We only hear the voice of the wise leaders telling us not to worry because they are doing what needs to be done to protect us. But they aren’t really doing anything to make us safer from attacks, especially from rogue nuclear attacks. They aren’t protecting the economic well being of this generation or the next. They aren’t protecting our environment or making any efforts to sustain resources for future Americans. They aren’t protecting us from murderers or child molesters or illegal immigration. The only protection this government is offering is to their corporate donors, their political hacks, and their terrorist allies in the world. As much as I recognize and fear the terrorists who would destroy America, I also fear that the politicians of today will do nothing to make things whole again. But I refuse to be paralyzed by those fears. And I operate from a place of hope. Hope that Americans will wake up and discard the politics of fear. Hope that America will face our troubles head on, with honesty and a rational plan to conquer them.

America can’t discard freedom to defeat our fear. America must defeat fear with hope.

On the surface, this seems to be a victory for decency and real American values. We have long held ourselves to be a nation of freedom and the rule of law, and this repudiation of such vile behavior in our name shows the world that it is not average Americans they need to be wary of, just the out of control leadership in the White House. Still, this is just one small victory. Indeed, if CIA operatives continue to farm out suspected terrorists to other nations for questioning, the issue becomes one of semantics only. The next step is for legislators to pass laws that forbid us from sending our captives to “ally nations” that would subject them to the same treatment we claim to abhor so much.

In other news, Iraqi citizens are exercising their voices in the first democratic election that country has seen in decades, if ever. In numbers that put our own political processes to shame, nearly 70% of eligible Iraqi voters have turned out to elect their first parliament. Imagine if 70% of American citizens felt so strongly about democracy that they turned out for our own elections. We’d actually have a better chance at a representative government in this country too.

But back to Iraq. The Bush administration will claim that this election validates their most recent justification for pre-emptive war. They will claim that the lack of widespread violence on Election Day is a testament to the fact that their plan is working. If the post election results return and violence continues to abate, many of their supporters will use that as evidence that this was the right war at the right time despite the president’s own admissions that the reasons given for going to war were false. But the truth may not be so cut and dry. And the success of these elections may in fact reflect more of a desire on the part of Iraqi’s for us to leave their country than anything else.

Despite administration claims that insurgents are foreign fighters imported to fuel the flames of the al-Qaeda jihad, many reports show that the insurgency is more home grown and in a large part due to the continued presence of American soldiers on Iraqi soil. Indeed, the president continues to reiterate the message loudly that we will stay until “the job is done.” That job is variously described in terms of having successful elections in Iraq, training Iraqi’s to defend themselves from terrorist and foreign attacks, or rebuilding the Iraqi economy. With this successful election, Iraqi’s are meeting the administration head on to see if they will do as they say.

What remains to be seen now is whether the U.S. will follow through with our end of the deal and begin to return some autonomy to the Iraqi government and their people. If we are to be true to our word, we must now set our own aims firmly behind those of the Iraqi government. We must become their tool, not their master. We must seek to withdraw our own forces as they ramp up their own. We must desist from getting involved with their internal affairs even as we assist them in rooting out the real terrorists in their midst. As Iraqi’s of all stripe engage in the political process and refute their guns in favor of their voices, America must prepare to pull out and let them handle the hard work of building a more free society.

Meanwhile, our own democracy takes more hits from the very people charged with defending it. Announcements today of President Bush authorizing the NSA to eavesdrop on domestic phone calls and e-mails sent abroad in the months following 9-11 have the administration looking for another table to hide under. Such actions, engaged without the necessary court orders, are in clear violation of U.S. law and mark another instance when this administration views itself to be beyond the law of the land. Republicans were quick to denounce any misdeed of the Clinton administration, going so far as to impeach the man for marital infidelities (though they focused on the lie he told about the acts as their basis for impeachment), but so far remain silent at best on the myriad wrongdoings of the Bush bunch. How the conservative citizen can continue to support a man who ran on principals of integrity, honesty, and political compassion is beyond me, especially in light of the absurdity of those claims with each new revelation coming out of Washington. Clearly, this is one of the most verifiably corrupt administrations to appear in some time.

Fortunately, those elected to the Senate and House are beginning to recognize that average citizens are tiring of the bullying nature of the administration, the deliberate obfuscations and rationalizations, and their outright lies. Today also marked the Senate’s refusal to extend many portions of the Patriot Act that most infringed on the civil liberties of law-abiding citizens. Unfettered access to the private reading, shopping, and conversation habits of American citizens, and so called “sneak and peak” searches without reasonable cause and court orders are not necessary tools in the war on terror, despite administration claims to the contrary. And the reports issued today about the activities of the NSA, at the president’s own direction, show that this is a government that can’t be trusted to respect freedom and liberty here at home.

Repudiating torture is a good thing. It shows that American’s still believe in humane treatment for even our enemies. This is one thing that separates us from them. Repudiating invasive spying and the trampling of civil rights by our own government against us is a good thing. It shows our government that we aren’t willing to sacrifice our freedoms in the struggle to be safer. This is what separates true patriots from paper tigers. And a high election turn out in Iraq is a good thing. It sets the stage for the U.S. to begin removing ourselves from what will ultimately be an Iraqi issue- the future of their country.

Our founding fathers held many lofty ideals regarding the state of mankind and its right and ability to self-govern. Their words are recorded in our most precious national documents and in their speeches and memoirs. Phrases like “All men are created equal,” and “…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” inspire us, but if looked at in the context of the actions of those who spoke them, it becomes obvious that the phrases and their meanings, like humanity itself, have evolved to more truly represent their empirical meanings. In 1776, all men were not equal. Equality in those days was reserved for white, male landowners. In 1776, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were not applicable to blacks or Indians or any other non-European descendant. It wasn’t really for the poor either, at least not to the same degree as it was applied to the wealthier population. But words have meaning, and when words such as these are enshrined in national politics, they have a tendency to assert themselves. And in a democracy, even one with obvious limitations, these words have a way of realizing their true potential. Today’s definition of “all men are created equal” includes men of all colors and races, including women and children. And though it occurred gradually, at times even painfully slowly, it has taken the will and determination of common people to realize the dreams that words such as those promise. So it is the same with the phrase “government for the people, by the people, and of the people.”

Government for the People What does this phrase mean to you? Does it mean that governmental bodies should spend their days crafting favorable legislation for their political donors? Does it mean that tax dollars collected should be diverted to meaningless studies or inefficient, bloated, or poorly managed programs? Does it mean that your elected officials should ignore their fundamental role as servant to the citizens or politicize issues that have no place in the political realm? Does it mean that government should be an exclusive club requiring the right pedigree or personal connection? Or does the phrase “government for the people” imply that any action undertaken by our governmental officials must have at its core an overwhelming public benefit, provided with the greatest efficiency and highest available quality? Perhaps the biggest problem with our government today, and I’m talking about all levels of government from the local and state levels all the way to the federal system, is that politicians no longer seem to remember that ours is supposed to be a government for the people. Instead, they use their positions of trust and influence to increase their own power base and personal wealth while helping their buddies to the public till as well. Pick up a newspaper and you’re sure to find an article a day about public officials getting charged with a crime or about an agencies fiscal undoing. Our government is no longer for the people, except for a relatively select few who get richer at the expense of the rest of the population, for the simple reason that it is no longer a government of the people.

Government of the People Government of the people is the inside joke of our national and local political systems. Even at its inception, none of the ruling class of the day really wanted to open up the halls of power to the common man. Inferred, but seldom verbalized was the notion that politics was the domain of the wealthy or college educated or socially connected person and definitely not a place for the dirt farmer or the taxi driver or the construction laborer. Every so often, a man of humble origins would find himself elected to office, but his ascent could usually be traced through military service, lending an air of courage and strength in place of sophistication and birthright. The result is a ruling class, albeit an elected one, that has little in common with the general population, save the need to eat and drink and sleep. For a government to be for the people, if must first be of the people. Unfortunately, those who have passed the reins of power among their social and literal descendants have also gamed the system so as to preclude admission from any but those already like themselves. The process to become an officially recognized candidate for political office is fraught with barriers that to an average working person may be unbreakable. But to a person with money and access, political office is more of a game or a hobby, with the added benefit of increasing ones own net worth at the expense of the public tax roll. To restrict the playing field even more, political aspirants not affiliated with a major party are ignored by the press (controlled of course by the moneyed interests) and required to prove their ballot “worthiness” by jumping through additional bureaucratic hoops. And if you can get through all of that, there’s still the matter of collecting thousands of signatures or paying an entrance fee to become a candidate. If you’re working a job to feed the family, when do you find time to go signature gathering? Or maybe you’ve got a few thousand dollars just lying around to buy your name on the ballot? Designs like these often ensure that the common man does not get a chance to represent his fellow citizens. Those that are truly of the people are locked out from the start.

Government by the People Because government is not really representative of the people, and because it is not truly for the people, it goes to reason that we don’t have a government by the people either. To say that a government is by the people is to imply that the things government does are things that the people want it to do. If the government asks the people to approve a tax for road improvements, then government must make sure that roads are improved with the revenue, because that’s what people directed government to do. This is an example of government by the people. But does your local government act this way. How about your state governments? Or does your government pursue its own agenda, dictated by the interests of its elite membership class, with little forethought towards the citizens other than finding a snazzy way to present their latest swindle? If government were really operating under the principal “by the people” we would not have cities and states on the brink of bankruptcy. We would not have national laws flaunted by violators and unenforced by lawmakers. We would not have record level deficits or destructive national policies because the people would not let these things stand. Not if they had any real say they wouldn’t.

Words do have meaning, and the words “for the people, by the people, and of the people” have meaning too. But in order for their full meaning to be realized, we must recognize the importance of our place in maintaining and ensuring such a government. For the American experiment in government to be a success for all citizens, we must reinvigorate our role in this participatory government of self-rule. We must reinvent ourselves as concerned and involved citizens. We must all vote and perform other civic duties like serving on a jury or sitting on citizen advisory panels. We must also reform our political financing laws and streamline the process for candidate eligibility. We must clearly express what we expect and what we will not tolerate from politicians and crack down on government corruption, including the loss of personal privacy in an increasingly shrinking world of information. And we must be willing to serve each other selflessly for the common good and to give back to our society as thanks for all that we get in return.

Words have meaning. But unless we speak them loud enough and often enough and back them up with our actions, words are just words. And in this case, the words we ignore are the ones that come back to haunt us.

It’s easy enough for them to do too. Ours is a multi-ethnic, multi-belief system, melting pot kind of place filled with people from all over the world, each bringing with them a different set of dreams and beliefs as they seek their own liberty. With no single national culture, finding divisive issues to exploit becomes as easy as taking candy from a baby. It’s an effective ploy that detracts us from keeping our eye on the ball, so to speak. While some politicians busily grandstand the newest cause du jour, the rest of our leaders are just as busily spending our hard earned tax dollars on things that further consolidate power for themselves and their benefactors, leaving the public holding an empty bag or looking at a broken program.

But freedom and liberty cannot exist without a measure of responsibility. And it is this very lack of responsibility, on an individual level and on a societal level too, that makes possible the very divisiveness our politicians exploit. In our “anything goes,” “what about me?” society, we seem to have forgotten that a lack responsible stewardship of our freedoms opens the door for government to restrict more of our freedoms in the name of preserving freedom for us all. It is this kind of upside-down reasoning that fits perfectly with our own upside-down thinking that allows us to take our freedom for granted.

Many of our political topics, the so-called “divisive issues” that seek to separate our country and paralyze meaningful, effective legislation, are things that have no place in politics anyway, but instead belong to a different part of life, a more private part of life, the part of life that makes us who we are. And despite the attempts at division, if taken in a non-political context, many of these issues require little more than Common Sense and compromise. Things like advocating tolerance towards religious beliefs or sex. Things like child rearing, teaching responsibility and work ethic. Things like race relations and entertainment. These are the some of the things that define who we are. These are not things that necessarily require legislation, but that doesn’t stop a politician from trying.

Politics should be about making sure the public is safe. Politics should be about foreign relations. Politics should be about maintaining infrastructure or social programs or the effective use of taxes. Politics should be about keeping the playing field as level as possible. But politics has no real claim to family values or public entertainment or philanthropy, other than to encourage people to find common acceptable standards while tolerating those that are not in the mainstream, but also not illegal. Once a political system begins to legislate or manipulate the daily functions and beliefs of the individual and society, freedom goes out the window, replaced by a kind of opiatic melancholy and eventual apathy.

The way to prevent this from happening is to take back the non-political issues from the politicians and resolve social conflict without the need for legislation, because with every new law put on the books, we are losing our ability to determine our own path.

In the next several essays I will begin to explore some of these dividing points that are often exploited by power hungry politicos, and look for ways to relieve the tension that exists in the citizens without having to resort to legal maneuvering. In each case, resolution will require both a changed outlook among the American people and an increased willingness to stand up for themselves. I look forward to conversations with you concerning social tolerance, the victim mentality, “family values” and parenting responsibilities, the media and entertainment industry, philanthropy, trust, and religion.

Winning the fight with our enemies will require many years of hard fought battles, and many of the casualties will be innocent civilians. But the fight between cultures, for let’s use our common sense here and call it what it is, will not be won just by spilling blood. Many will die, let’s be clear, for that is inevitable in a war where one sides stated goal is to kill all of the other. There is no way to win this without the use of force and violence. But we must also deploy all the other tools in our arsenal: diplomacy, assistance, and investment.

I called this a fight between cultures, and because I don’t want any confusion about what that means, let me explain. Our primary enemies today are not all members of the Islamic religion, but Islamic hard-liners who follow a particularly strict interpretation of their religion. Their goal is to return the state of civilization to a pseudo-medieval arrangement. They seek to impose their ideals on the rest of the world, spreading from their original homelands, primarily in the Middle East and Africa. The most effective of these enemies, Al-Qaeda, is not even a foreign government who we could wage a more conventional war against. Instead, they are scattered across the world. For while America is their primary target, they seek to cower to entire world before they are done and they spread their violence and terrorism to our allies as well. They operate a well-financed organization, obtain highly trained scientists and tacticians, and maintain a steady influx of recruits. Their culture is inherently different from our own. Their laws and governments are written and run by the clerical hierarchy. Their interpretation of their holy books dictates daily life. Personal freedom is nearly non-existent and public dissent forbidden. Were they to win, we would lose everything we hold dear.

We, on the other hand, represent a way of life that embraces personal freedom. We are made up of many factions, and rightly so, for to our enemies, anyone not with them is a legitimate target. And because we embody so many different beliefs, we rule ourselves with tolerance. These two ways of governing are not compatible. Only one will ultimately win. Currently our way, or variations of it, has proven to offer a quality of life unknown in much of the world. Their way offers a life of slavery. Given the choice, I’ll fight for our way every time.

Still, we have our faults and they are great. The time has come for us to really look at what we are doing in the world and determine how we could be doing it better. We never asked to be the world’s Superpower. The world asked us. And as a result, as we went on our prosperous way, enriching our lives and strengthening ourselves, the world looked at us in a new way. They sucked our culture up like a coke fiend at an all-nighter and then cursed us when the stuff turned out to be laced. We never sought the limelight and we never went looking for trouble. But the world came asking and we took up the challenge. And in doing so, we turned into management. The problem with being in management is that you tend to stop looking at the individual and begin looking at the goals of the whole. Good managers know that you have to do both. A good manager isn’t afraid to use common sense, but we haven’t always had good managers. Our government today has few, if any. And without good managers, both the whole and the individual begin to fail. The policies and the actions of our government have not always been designed to benefit us as citizens, or even us as a country, but to satisfy the greed of autocratic businessmen or power hungry bureaucrats. As such, we have made enemies without even knowing it, at least, not until it’s too late.

So while we must continue to fight the enemy on the battlefields and in the cities, we must also look within ourselves and recognize that while we didn’t ask for this war, we can’t win it without changing ourselves too.

Diplomacy is not a tool that can be used directly with our Islamic enemies. Their goals allow no concessions, their purpose to win by slaughter or submission. We can’t hold a dialogue with an enemy who cuts off our head when we sit at the table. But diplomacy can and must be used to prevent the terrorists from gaining ground in other Middle Eastern or under-developed nations. And diplomacy can and must be used to maintain our allies and bring in more who will help. Diplomacy will allow us to show the world that they are part of the “us” in the “us versus them” equation. We should be prepared to offer our support to nations who join in the fight against the enemy. That support should be offered in ways that include technology sharing, medical training, and infrastructure support as well as financially and militarily. By offering these things, we would be showing our friends as well as those on the fence, that we too are one of “us” and that in order for “us” to survive, “we” must work together. By working to end the culture of haves and have-nots, we eliminate one of the reasons for others to hate or envy us. It’s time to change our unspoken national motto from “Greed is Good” to “Greed Can Be Deadly.”

Assistance and diplomacy go hand in hand. By working with other nations to improve the lives of their citizens, we make ourselves safer. Why should the people of the world strive for the American Dream? Do they really want to leave their homelands and families? Why don’t we help them create their own dreams? What’s wrong with striving for the Afghani Dream or the Mexican Dream or the Thai Dream? By helping them develop their own national dreams, they create a culture that would naturally reject religious totalitarianism like that of Al-Qaeda. And if they help us now we should begin to help them now.

Of course, diplomacy and assistance require investment, both in capital and in time. As members of an expensive and fast paced culture, these are two commodities that are dear to us Americans. We often pay lip service to diplomacy but we are reluctant to offer commitments without specific parameters. But mutually cooperative agreements don’t need to be held on a schedule. They should continue until both sides have achieved their goals. If we are asking for friends then we must be ready to be a friend. Everyone knows what it’s like to depend on someone and then have them let you down. After a while, you don’t think of them so much as a friend as an adversary. It the geo-political world, adversary is just a stones throw from enemy. So in order to succeed in the non-combat areas of this war, we need to listen to our allies, offer what we can and expect them to do the same. At the same time, we must change their negative impressions of us by seeking better ways to manage and share global resources, technology, and education.

America is a great country. Our biggest problem is that we have spent too much time in management and are out of tune with our world. The ninety percent of the world that wants us to succeed in this war includes Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, pagans, atheists, and quite possibly Druids and Jedis. We must all work together to conquer the enemy and ensure the quality of our lives. We have so many problems facing us as a species that we need to put an end to this culture war once and for all.

It will not be won without sacrifice from each and every one of us. In ways that we don’t even think about consciously, we have to be ready to change how we live and relate to the world. We have to be prepared to sacrifice now so our children can have a better tomorrow. We have to see beyond ourselves and our immediate desires to ensure that we are creating a foundation for the future generations. It will be painful. It will be costly. It will be worth it.