The True State of the Union
According to the Writer’s Almanac:
It’s the birthday of writer Alexis de Tocqueville, born in Paris (1805). He was 25 years old when the French government sent him to America to study the prison system. He spent nine months touring towns and cities and taking notes. A few years later, he published his famous book, Democracy in America (1835).
During his tour, the aristocratic Tocqueville was impressed by the fact that American Democracy actually worked. He wrote: “There is one thing which America demonstrates invincibly, and of which I had been in doubt up till now: it is that the middle classes can govern a state. I do not know if they would come out with credit from thoroughly difficult political situations. But they are adequate for the ordinary run of society. In spite of their petty passions, their incomplete education and their vulgar manners, they clearly can provide practical intelligence, and that is found to be enough.”
It’s a vague comfort to know, or at least be able to believe, that this was the case, albeit almost two centuries ago. When precisely it morphed into something else is impossible to say; there was no revolution nor any other abrupt event that transformed the United States from what it apparently was then into what it is now. The words of Jimmy Carter ring true: “(a violation) of the essence of what made America a great country is its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery.”
There may be bigger problems in America, but I doubt that. If you can name anything you want and ask yourself why you can’t have it, it all comes back to the mother cause: unlimited political bribery. Why don’t we have universal healthcare, where it’s favored by the majority of both the common people and medical practitioners themselves? Why can’t we have universal background checks for prospective gun owners (favored by a mere 91% of American voters)? Why the constant assault on our environment?
Take a cool guess.
Craig,
Why can’t the sun shine every day?
What you call “political corruption” is really just you not getting your own way. If 91% of people really were concerned about “universal background checks for prospective gun owners”, no legislator would dare to miss the opportunity to make that an electoral pledge.
What a few people tell a pollster and what is an important election issue are often two very things. That not “political corruption” just political reality!
Vague notions like “constant assault on our environment” , represent your own fuzzy thinking, not a like of democracy or some mysterious sinister cabal of “moneyed interests”. The same with vague notions like “universal healthcare”. These meaningless grand proposals are popular until broken down into concrete proposals, then no one agrees anymore.
It’s of little value complaining the world isn’t perfect and not ordered to your specifications or beliefs.
How will endless bitter bleating about the iniquities of the rich help change anything?
https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/oct/03/chris-abele/do-90-americans-support-background-checks-all-gun-/
https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2018/mar/02/tammy-baldwin/mostly-target-claim-97-percent-gun-owners-support-/
Craig,
Perhaps instead of bl;eating about the iniquities of the rich (excepting democrat rich) you may contemplate the dishonesty and negativity of the US leftist media and Democrat machine.
In a recent torrent of Twitter, President Trump responded to Rep. Elijah Cummings attacks on the administration’s Border Control policies.
The NYT, CNN etc, rushed to the defense of Rep. Elijah Cummings(D). The NYT headline screamed, “The Rot You Smell Is a Racist Potus” .
The “Rot” referred to the fact that Rep. Elijah Cummings represents a corrupt, mismanaged, his rat-infested Baltimore district,renowned for drugs, crime and streets littered with garbage and poor civic services.
The President’s exhortation that Rep. Elijah Cummings should “look to his own backyard” and try to fix his own area of responsibility, is for some illogical reason considered “racist” by the leftist Press.
This is consistent with the view that it’s “racist” to criticize the shortcoming of politicians from ethnic minorities.
On the same basis, NYT regards the criminal investigation by the IRS and DoJ into accusations of corruption, perjury, fraud and other crimes involving Rep. Elijah Cummings’ wife, also “racially motivated”.
Maryland’s 7th congressional district which he has served 26 years as Congressional representative, is one of the poorest and most neglected in the US. The 7th district seat is currently encompasses about half of Baltimore City, the majority of Howard County and the majority African American sections of Baltimore County.
For the first time in history, the 7 th District has responded against the Democrats. After the President’s comment of Twitter, pro-trump group of working class, blue collar African-American residents have begun a grass roots campaign to rid themselves of the politicians who have exploited them for so long.
Thousands have begun organizing on social media and in community groups against the Democrat stranglehold and corruption. In the words of Beth Carver, 62 who has lived in Orangeville all her life, “Rep. Elijah Cummings ain’t done anything for this area in 20 years, ‘cept for hiself”.
“The President’s right, seems to me, Elijah Cummings should pay more attention to the folks here than worry’n ’bout illegal migrants” .
Beth Carver is a civic leader disenchanted with the Democrats, yet until the election of Trump she felt there was no alternative.
She and her fiends don’t think the President is “racist”, in her words “he’s just tellin’ it how it is!”.
That’s how the President is winning hearts and minds. He is most effective when pointing out complacency and hypocrisy.