Raging at the Wind – Democracy in Action!
Here we go again, engaging in our national pastime of playing Russian Roulette with our future. Enjoy our observations and commentary on 2016 US National Elections.
Although we started off with 18+ hollow-point bullets for our Six-Shooter, we’ve honed our way down to two; one round named Hillary, the other Trump. Which fateful bullet will we lodge into our cranium this November? Will it be the one who is less dishonest than the other, or less angry, or least hated; or perhaps. it will be the one who makes less of a spectacle between now and the General Election?
The Best of the Worst
The astute Democracy observer, de Tocqueville, remarked in the 1830s that “While the natural instincts of democracy lead the people to banish distinguished men from power, an instinct no less powerful leads distinguished men to shun careers in politics,…” I suspect that this is why with a country of 322 Million people, we once again find ourselves relegated to picking not the best of the best, but the least bad of the worst.
Churchill exhorted once “… it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” So, apparently this is the best we can do and we’ll suffer from our choices because in reality, we are only victims of ourselves. What will be the cost this time around? Only time will tell, but in turbulent times once before, Franklin was asked “…what have we got, a Republic or a Monarchy?” He responded “A Republic,” and prophetically, “if you can keep it.” Will our recent series of decisions position us to ‘Keep It’; or will we propel our nation along the path that extinguishes the ‘experiment’ of governance by reason and truth, as exclaimed by Jefferson. Is this just the darkness before the dawn as we experienced in 1980, or just the beginning of a new, darkened future?
Negligent Discharge
In November we’ll pull the revolver’s trigger until either the Hillary or Trump bullet explodes from the chamber. I guess the best we can really hope for is a poorly aimed, negligent discharge that only scalps us, and somehow preserves the “sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government” as extolled by Washington. Now is when we should rely on the ‘invisible hand’ that conducts Affairs of men. But, again, as Washington observed, that “Since we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained:”, maybe we should be very worried.
commentary on 2016 US National Elections
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