Strange Doings in American Politics
A friend sent me this piece on the demise of Jeb Bush’s candidacy for president of the United States in 2016.
I wrote back:
That’s remarkable. He really is, albeit unexpectedly, a complete non-event, though I actually don’t know why I’m surprised. A good friend (even though a real conservative) has been in numerous meetings with him and told me, “He’s good at learning material and reading prepared speeches, but he’s profoundly slow on the uptake; he’s very passive and has nothing of value to say; he’s incapable of generating an original idea.”
The author of the piece you sent writes: Jeb Bush is getting creamed. His poll numbers are so close to nothing as to make no practical difference.
I believe what happened to Bush is that he came along during a rapid downturn in the level of intelligence and enlightenment of the core GOP base. Nowadays, the wilder and crazier the better. First they preferred Donald Trump (a boorish, spiteful loudmouth) and now Ben Carson (a total crackpot). Did you see what I wrote about Carson earlier today? Holy mother of God.
As I’m sure I’ve told you, I feel sorry for people like my mother, a gracious and well educated woman who happens to have conservative values. I don’t share most of those values, but I certainly empathize with the frustration and even embarrassment she must feel, being a member of a party that seems so determined to prove how unaligned it is with the sensibilities of the vast majority of US voters. In the debates we see that the candidates’ appeal is to hardcore gun-lovers, gay-bashers, xenophobes, rabid pro-lifers, racists, and war-mongers–and that’s not going to get it done. Sadly, this defines a fair number of Americans, though, fortunately, not nearly enough to elect a president.
At the end of the day, it appears that it will be the Republicans who bring about the election of Hillary Clinton, rather than the Democrats.
I never thought I’d see anything like this.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I find there are generally three qualities always present in a good public servant: integrity, intellect and information.
Bad public servants nearly always possess only two of these at most. They are either ignorant, ignoble, or idiots, or some combination.
Regrettably and fatefully, the reign of greed over our political processes has not proven conducive to the rise of participants of the first sort.
While many in other parties have regarded legitimized forms of bribery as a distasteful but unavoidable evil, many in the GOP leadership publicly and proudly laud such prostitution as though it were the equivalent of free speech.
Little wonder that we should see greed – and its helpmates, fear and bigotry – so much more purely and increasingly on display in the more eagerly prostituting faction.
If we want public servants who will serve the whole public, we must ensure that they rise to office, and are paid, only through the auspices of the whole public.
The I’s have it. 🙂
🙂