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The Iowa Caucus and the Retreat from Decency…

I’m feeling kind of sad today.  As I set here zipping down through facebook posts, I’m seeing a lot of really troubling stuff.  Granted many are partial attempts at humor so they shouldn’t be considered a big deal.  But…  There’s still a lot being said in spite of the chuckles.

People are actually bragging about not being part of the political process.  There are two important things at work here that should be considered.

One, if you truly are dumb, then you should stay home.  Dumb people have no place in deciding the fate and direction of a nation, and subsequently its citizens.  By dumb, I mean unable to pass a civics test in these States United.  If you can’t do that, you have zero business applying your civic illiteracy onto the rest of us.  We’ve got enough to people to carry thanks to infinite entitlement programs – we don’t need more.

Two, if you’re under the impression it’s somehow OK to shirk your responsibility to the country you enjoy and skip your duty, you’re actually the problem you bitch about day in and day out.  The framers of this nation knew its citizen needed to be politically astute.  It was a basic responsibility and you were expected to lend a hand back to the nation in this regard.  You were to be educated, and not by the state by the way, but on your own accord so you could contribute to the nation’s well-being, and thus yourself.  To not do so, was thoroughly un-American.

So what are we saying now?

“I don’t want to participate, but I want to whine like a mule as the day is long about what I don’t like.”  Nobody finds the error in this but me?  Isn’t this the definition of oxymoron?

“I didn’t like any of the candidates, so I stayed home from the caucus this year.”  Hello?  At what point are you going to shape elections if it isn’t in the caucus that precedes a primary election that happens before the general election?  I’ve got to tell you folks, if you can’t get involved in the process where you say a person’s name, toss your person’s name into a hat when passed around, and see how things stack up, then you’re just lazy.

“There are two things you can’t talk about – politics and religion.”  I’m so sick of hearing that, I could puke coat hangers.  At what point as a nation have we devolved to the place where we can’t even hold the discussion on key items in our culture any longer?  Where is it written we have to autonomously align ourselves with one another at the conclusion of a healthy debate or conversation?  Can’t we just visit and not get butt hurt about outcome?  There are times we simply aren’t going to agree.  But classifying the largest and most important topics of our time as forbidden isn’t a suitable position for the America I love…

Or, do we not have that America any longer?  I mean…  Let’s get real.  Everyone is thinking it, but nobody is saying it.  Maybe we’re not great anymore.  You can slice me up for putting it in writing if you want, but that doesn’t change the question.  And if we can’t ask and answer it, then you’ve proven the question I raise correct, haven’t you?

We live in a time when our leadership, and I specifically mean our President and political class, tell you every time they take the microphone how short we fall.  Do you remember the great speeches coming from our Presidents that inspired us all when they addressed our nation?

What about George Washington’s farewell address in 1796?  FDR’s war message to Congress in 1941 after Pearl Harbor was attacked?  JFK’s inaugural address in 1961?  Bush’s bullhorn speech after the WTC attacks on 9/11?  Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech in ’83?  Instead, today, we get to listen to how we’re no good.  We hear about all the things we’re doing wrong.  We allow our ‘leadership’ to permeate our selves with negatives about what and who we are rather than what our children can become.

The more I think about it, is there an excuse to skip your duty?  The assaults on God and Country have never been worse than they are today.  …And here we set.  Monkeying around on facebook and not even realizing that we’re actually bragging about how we’ve shirked our responsibilities.

Short version?  I’m disappointed people don’t see this for what it is.  We apparently have grown so complacent and lackadaisical that we don’t even realize we have spent the last short while insulting ourselves and certainly our forefathers.  For the few of you who had the guts to even read this far, I commend you.  So what are you going to do?

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