Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Ship Of Fools

I just spoke with a young man who works for a local company on Long Island.
When I mentioned that I was currently canvassing certain neighborhoods for the reelection campaign of Carolyn McCarthy he asked if she was Republican or Democrat.  Upon hearing that he went into a controlled tirade against her.
But the key to his anger was not that he disliked her or even knew what she stood for. His argument was that he wanted to throw out all the incumbents and start over.  "Get rid of them all and go back to the Constitution.  Start from scratch with all new people."
Aside from the fact that that can never happen, thankfully, he just doesn't understand the problems that would cause.  But unfortunately he is not alone in his delusions of grandeur.
If we started all over, as some on the far right would have us do the vote would be lost to women and African Americans.
Aside from the fact that it would make most of the proponents happy it would ruin the country.
So why the anger?
Why the fear, fake or real about the direction of the country?
For one thing we can blame far different groups for this "I want it now!" attitude. (Thanks to Varuca from Willy Wonka for that.)
These is of course the 24/7 media coverage of everything of interest, or not;
The minority party (for the time being) constantly stoking the fires of fear in order to gain control in Congress and beyond;
And of course the shadow universe of wealthy greedy individuals and corporations who may finally gain real control of the country thanks to the Supreme Court of George W. Bush & friends.
But the thing that young man does not understand is the value of patience.  While it may be thought of as a virtue it is also a necessity.
Think of the country as a huge ocean liner somewhere out there.  It is lumbering along in one direction sailing on smooth waters.  Suddenly a storm appears on the horizon.  The ship must try to either weather the storm or turn and head for calmer waters.
But in order to turn this massive ship around it will take a cool headed person at the helm and plenty of room and time.  the captain realizes a fast turn is not possible but with all hands working together he can indeed steer them all to safety.
The U S Ship of State is unfortunately in those stormy waters and has been since the storm of 2007.  We elected Captain Obama to steer us clear of further damage and to this point he has been able to start the ship turning.
But unfortunately before he had a fair chance of doing what we asked many of the hands who should have been helping on deck were instead planning a mutiny.
They saw an opportunity to take control of the ship.  Their plan was to turn it back into the muck and mired muddy waters of the past they so admired.
Their behind the scenes admiral, Rove (the same evil genius of the past) plotted the route.
He realized that if the captain had enough time he could right the ship and that would mean an end to his hopes of regaining power for years to come.  That was just not acceptable.
The problem is too many voters feel the ship should have been righted by now and they happen to be correct!
But they are pointing to the wrong culprit!
Had the entire electorate, and that includes the Republicans who were voted into office to serve the citizens of America pulled together along with the President then the country would have been on the right track instead of drifting.
So to reward those mutiny minded Party of No hands for their obstructionist behavior is the exact opposite of what we should be doing!
And worse we the people will be sending a message to the politicians that if you are in the minority act to help the country to fail and your party will get back the majority!
Unfortunately the above would take some logical thinking and who has the time these days for that?
By the way did you see what Bristol Palin did on Dancing with the Stars last night?  I mean, OMG...

1 comment:

Reschzoo said...

A friend commented on this and just about every other post I have placed for a while concerning the tactics of the Republicans with the following:

BTW Bruce,
I agree with your blog that the GOP's nay saying is their attempt to stop Obama re-election. But I believe it is also based on their effort to re-elect themselves - their primary goal.

Thanks F.S.