‘Politicians are not born; they are excreted.’
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
Politics is no kinder or gentler than it’s been in the past couple of hundred years.
What’s changed, though, is a lack of civility which is completely out of control.
My granddaughter and I were having a discussion about President Reagan, the great communicator. During one of his first speeches after nearly dying from an assassin’s bullet, a balloon that was in the hall popped, and he quickly quipped “Missed me.”
The crowd roared.
The next clip on the YouTube reel was his first State of the Union Address, and standing next to the Vice President was Thomas Phillip “Tip” O’Neill, a Democrat Speaker of the House, who had a deserved reputation of taking care of the people of the United States by getting things done. He was a dealmaker.
Known and friendly with both sides of the aisle, he was respected by both parties, although either extreme was often not happy with him. He stood his ground when necessary, and made deals from the floor of the people’s house when it was in the best interest of the American People.
Like making sausage, the process itself can be messy, but the results can be very tasty.
I’m going to say it again, the process was no kindler or gentler. What is hugely different is that these men and women were hard on the problem, not on the people. I don’t believe Tip O’Neill would have stooped to the level of depravity demonstrated by Nancy Pelosi tearing up the copy of Trump’s State of the Union Address.
He was much too classy for that kind of move, and he knew it would start to ferment the violent rhetoric that we see today. There wasn’t name calling. There were not bold-faced lies. There were differing opinions, and the process needed to get things done is the lost art of compromise.
Remember compromise? It’s how Union contracts were built without interrupting people’s lives;’ how legislation was crafted; and it was done by men and women with a job to do who wanted a mutually beneficial outcome.
What we have right now are 435 big-mouthed bullies in the House, and another hundred in Congress, none of which will hesitate to call those not of his tribe “the son of a whore” or worse. It’s not civil at all. They all refuse to compromise, mostly because it’s what they sold to their constituents. That’s the first lie, powered by their overwhelming “need” to get elected.
And, it sends a message. The message is to hate your opponent.
It’s not “we can play the game hard” and enjoy our neighbors when the game is over. It’s fight to the death, and your principles be damned. Don’t forget to hate the guy or gal who’s elected (same as you) to a seat (same as yours) to do the peoples’ business, and make it work across three time zones.
I played sports in high school. I was a captain of the football team, and of the wrestling team. We proudly played to win. The captain of our arch rival lived less than a quarter-mile from where I did. We played together as children. We played hard. As we grew up, we were even more competitive, and even more friendly. Same job, with the same challenges, but for different teams.
There was a camaraderie that is born where you’re each one of two doing a specific job in the area. It was as it should be.
We were not about to throw the game. We played hard. Very hard. But when we stepped off the gridiron, we were just a couple of guys from the neighborhood where there was an invisible geopolitical line in the middle of the street that sent us to different high schools.
Five decades later, I’m still in touch with him. Different teams. Same challenges. Both still leaders.
Of course, what we are, the House is not. We are seeing generally well-educated and accomplished people take the easy way out. They are creating hate for the other side – exactly what is going on in Gaza – with the mindset of, “If you don’t get your way, kill your neighbor.”
It’s not a smart way to lead, and it’s lazy.
I’ve watched my country turn into a third-world nation with a politicized legal system, and now I’m watching the hate that is oozing out of our capital embolden those among us with mental challenges to pick up a weapon and kill politicians.
This is no different than Chuck Schumer telling poor, addled Thomas Crooks to go buy an AR-15 and take a shot at Donald Trump. It’s not different that I believe he’s culpable.
We don’t have fact-based political discussions anymore. We have name-calling sessions. We can’t discuss facts, because they are so twisted to support an agenda that we can’t agree. On anything.
The other assassin we saw on Saturday is the media. They murdered the truth. One outlet ran a picture of Trump bleeding and the headline said, “He fell.” Don’t they wish.
Everything foretold by the framers is coming true.
The problem is with political parties. The extreme positions, and they crazies that are willing to pick up a weapon and shoot a President in the theater. Or during a speech. Or from the top of a book repository, or thrusting a weapon into the side of a President and pulling the trigger.
Our politicians and their lap dog media are teaching our children, and their allegedly adult parents, to hate. The shootings will continue until they grow up and start acting like adults.
I’m done with the hate. We should all demand better … but would it make a difference?
