Not the usual 9/11 post about freedom

[ladycaviar]

Especially since I think it took me so long to write it's gonna post on the twelfth. But sweet purple Jesus, I got something to SAY.

First, since not everyone seems to have been paying attention in high school, a definition: politics, n. the process of making policy.

In a representational democracy/modified republic, which is the system we have in the US, We the People fought to be the fundamental makers of our governmental policies, rather than having them made for us by some arbitrarily defined "elite." And yet, my fellow citizens choose to throw this hard-won right away every day -- not to mention other treasured rights, which I'll get to in a minute. Why? Personally, I think it's a misunderstanding of the definition of the word politics.

Let us start with what it is not, and what is not new, and that is campaign muck. Let us cite just the one stellar tabloid example of, say, a presidential candidate who had an affair, possibly even while running for the highest office in the land, and supposedly fathered the child of his mistress? Think I'm talking about Edwards and that the country has gone to hell in a handbasket, and where are the morals of yesteryear? Then you weren't paying attention in high school. Shame on you. Trip through American history with me, will you?

1996: Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics, by "Anonymous" (later revealed to be journalist Joe Klein) is the fictionalization of Bill Clinton's first bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. The main appeal of the book lay in guessing who the author was, and whether the incident where the main character fathered a child on his best friend's daughter while on the campaign trail was true.

1928: The President's Daughter, by Nan Britton, claimed that during a six year relationship, she and then Senator Warren G. Harding (later the 29th President of the United States) conceived a child together in 1919. The book is considered the first popular best-selling kiss-and-tell American political autobiography published in the United States and caused a sensation when it was released.

1884: my personal favorite, the "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?" campaign against Grover Cleveland. Seriously, you should know that one. And if you don't, click the link. [How can my friends, who can tell you exactly how a 12th century French Crusader trimmed his toenails stare at me when I make these references?]

There is as much endless glee in the human soul in picking apart human foibles as there is tiredness in the human soul for seeing human foibles picked apart. Please be clear, when lamenting the crap broadcast across our screens, whether you actually are lamenting muck and the raking thereof. In fact, muckraking's not quite the honored profession it used to be.

Campaign muck stays the same, different dates, different names. Now policy, that changes. Thomas Jefferson didn't have DishTV, so he couldn't be expected to come up with appropriate policy for it. See the difference?

Muck distracts us from some very important policy items, and I don't hear anyone getting vocal about these things. Who gives a shit how Biden worded his sentences today? Why do I give a damn what speech Palin gave to what fucking group? Now this, this affects policy:

Inspector General's Report Says Oil Agency Ran Amok, Washington Post
"The oil industry holds shocking sway over the administration and even key federal employees" -- Sen Bill Nelson
Talk about an arbitrarily defined "elite!"

Anybody remember the Teapot Dome Scandal? Yes? Good. You get extra win points. No? You fail your citizenship test. Click the link.

Not getting the connection? Go back and read both articles very carefully. See where they are similar and where they are not. Teapot Dome caused a change in US domestic oil policies, and some protections were put in place. Which the present oil agency found ways around in order to benefit themselves -- pretty much necessitating some new, tighter policies immediately unless everybody's asleep at the wheel. And let's hope those policies are in place and encompass some sane way to deal with drilling oil in the Arctic Refuge. You think?

Did you notice I can advocate for sane policy without picking a side? Policy and political discussions do not necessarily have to be polarizing. It is not a zero-sum game.

Is anybody seeing my point about POLITICS yet? Does politics have one damn thing to do with who put lipstick on whose pig, or who fathered whose illegitimate child? I believe the only Father of Our Country was George Washington, and I'm pretty sure that was some kind of honorary metaphoric title. Contemporary writing says the man was a hottie in his day, but a fussy prude, so I guess he was Father-what-a-waste. Say what you like about Martha, and kudos to the boy for snagging a rich widow, but I'm pretty sure George never fucked an actual pig.

So much for history. Here's where we get to 9/11 and rights, and where I may or may not piss off anyone I haven't pissed off by this point. I mentioned earlier that I am sickened and saddened by my fellow citizens throwing away their hard-won rights to participate in the making of policy. Damn, all the stupid reasons people don't vote. Please do not list them, they will appear in your epitaph. But voting is not the only way to speak your voice and participate. You may not be able to change all the things that are wrong with this world, but you may be able to pick one thing and affect that. Until you try, you will get the government you deserve. syrjustus had an awesome post on just that subject...

I just had a minor epiphany. Our govt. has nothing to do with selecting the best people to lead us. It is by principle designed to be representative of the majority of us. Good-bad, selfish-generous, smart-dumb, it doesn't matter which of these are the 'best,' only which of them is the most. People really should vote for the candidate that is the most like themselves. Not who they think will do the best job, or who promises to give them what they want, but the candidate that is most like they are. That is how a representative democracy should work. Not by who is best, but by who is most like 51% of us. We should only have a good, smart, honest, capable leader if more than half of us fit that description. -Justus

Unfortunately, that leaves me with the government that you deserve. And since 9/11, somehow we have been conned into handing over our rights hand over fist to 1984 Orwellian Newspeak-named governmental agencies in the interest of some fictional vaporware "security" because of "those who died" on 9/11 and "because we had to do something."

Ahem. *bullshit.* ahem.

Is that the fucking legacy we want to leave them? Is that what those people fucking died for? So we could be mindless sheep who no longer think for themselves and pick our leaders based on soundbites about bullshit? Seriously?

Isn't that what those maniacs thought they were trying to eradicate? Didn't they want to erase a nation of selfish consumers who are parasites on the nations of the world, sucking the resources from the planet for their decadent excesses? Who don't even bother to vote in a country where they can?

Well, fuck that. Sadness and mourning was fine when we were in shock, but I'm not lighting a stupid candle, I'm not singing some asinine song, I'm not having some pissant moment of silence. People don't die for singing candle moments of silence. People die for rights, for ideals. Sometimes they throw tea in a harbor, and then they die for their rights.

None of those people chose to die on 9/11 though, and really, most of them weren't heroic. It was just tragic. But we can make something more than an uncomfortable Hallmark card of their deaths if we want to make anything of it at all. Not with a stupid candle, though.

So look. In theory, the Constitution is still in place. Cherish and love and use those rights we have if you want to keep them. If you loved those rights we had that got sneaked away from us, speak the hell up and fight for them back. We won them from a monarch once, it's not like they can't be taken back again. Government belongs to the people, and you are one of the people. If you didn't participate before because you didn't understand the word politics, you do now. If you're sick of muck, turn it off and find the issues you do care about -- they are out there. Make an informed choice. And if you need an inspiration other than the hundreds of thousands who have died for our freedom, then do it for a better 9/11 memorial than dripping wax and defacing the sidewalk.

I'm gonna use my brain. What are you gonna do?

Comments

Kudos

[ioseph-locksley.livejournal.com]

Well spoken indeed.

And I have made my choice, given the positions and actions, both past and projected, of the candidates.
No, my choice is not perfect.

Politics is the art of the possible, not the art of the perfect.

And I do NOT intend to post my choices, nor my reasons for those choices, on this board. I regard such things as rude.

[eltigreblanco.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the Teapot Dome scandal personally, though some may think I'm that old.
Ooh, do we getta talk politics now? I had a great discussion yesterday over coffee with Paul about healthcare in this country. He's in a good position to talk about it, as he works to get health insurance for people who haven't got it, using some rather creative partnerships between the private and public sectors.
If our policy makers could have that sort of conversation before they attempt wholesale changes in the system we have, it would be a far better thing for this country.

Thanks

[johnomar915.livejournal.com]

Reading this while NPR is recapping what the candidates did on 9/11 really is making me think. I agree with what you are saying here. It really bothers me that in the name of freedom we are having our freedoms taken away. Working in a library that has had the FBI stop by and ask us to violate State and Federal law, I may be more aware than many of us.

As with Ioseph, I have made my choices, but will not talk about them in this forum.

Thanks for posting this.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

Awesome post. Thanks for the multitude of really great links.

[eiricmacbean.livejournal.com]

Well said, bro, and thank you for putting it so well.
I'm more torn in this election season than I have been in a long time. Too much research to do, not enough time, it seems. My choices will be mine, though, not some parroted sound bite from the media. 'Nuff said on that.

Saw a great bumper sticker Tuesday...
"No, you can't have my rights, I'm still using them!"

[silverannex.livejournal.com]

9/111 sucks my fat arse backwards. Dude, your gov knew about it, and yet did NOTHING. Gah! That's gotta be the most INSANE thing ever!

=Anli=

[stefwithnf.livejournal.com]

As always, thanks for the clarification on "politics." Well said, and it needed to be said.

thanks Ro!

[amy2375.livejournal.com]

Thanks for stating openly what so many of us have been keeping under our hats. I DO have causes I believe in, and I do vote. Perhaps my choices are not perfect, but they are mine and my voting choice is MY business and no one else's. Well said, Ro! Ardena