The President's State of the Union speech was quaint. But, let's get down to some real facts about where we are. America is corrupted! If the President were to have spoken the truth about the state of our nation, his speech would not have needed to be any longer than those 3 words.
Corruption. The word corrupt means to alter a normal healthy state to one of being putrid, unsound, or debased. Corrupt is probably the most apt description of our government in these times. Take the Abramoff scandal which, certainly paints a picture of wide spread bribery of politicians and their aides in exchange for legislation which harms the nation, but favors the hands that feed the reelection coffers of incumbent political parties and politicians.
Our campaign finance system is little more than a vast bribery scheme. A scheme in which small numbers of very wealthy persons, or somewhat larger groups like trade associations get their favors, as in permanent tax cuts or lax environmental standards, while the majority lose pensions, jobs, and educational quality or assistance and feel the hardship of ever increasing costs for energy, health care, prescriptions, food and housing.
The corruption goes far beyond money however. The intelligence and premises for invading Iraq were corrupted. The process of budgeting while leaving 100's of billions of dollars of spending out of the budget to shore up appearances of fiscal responsibility is corrupt. The President's refusal to abide by the FISA court law is a corruption of the Constitution's checks and balances. His memory lapse in saying he does not recall meeting with Abramoff while refusing to hand over photos of those same meetings are a corruption of political office and truth. The political party wars between Democrats and Republicans which endlessly stall and delay solutions to America's problems like secure borders, and 12 million illegal immigrants in our country is a corruption of the very purpose of government which is to solve the nation's problems, not add to them.
Even our election process and our democracy is corrupt. With as many as 48% of eligible voters finding nothing motivating in our system of governance to warrant voting, our democracy suffers from a rule of the minority. A little over 30% of eligible voters elected Bush in 2004. Less than that reelected 94 to 96% of incumbent Congresspersons in 2004. This is not majority democracy. This is a corruption of the word democracy, which means among other things majority rule. Some folks on the right proudly and defiantly state that the United States is not, nor ever has been a democracy but rather, a Republic. This too is a corruption of what America can be. For America can be both a democracy of consensus majority rule and a republic form of representation. But America isn't in this healthy state because of the prime directive of the Democratic and Republican parties, which is to divide the public and the nation in order to win by a margin of only a few percent.
The hearts and minds of a nation's people are the last elements of society to yield to corruption. But once they do, that society will fail. The corruption of American's hearts and minds is the dirty little secret politicians don't want to talk about. America is home to vastly growing numbers of outlaws. One only need look at the speed limits on our highways and a radar gun for five minutes to witness this fact. America's black markets in cash only non-tax paying businesses are becoming so prevalent that if one listens closely in restaurants or barber shops, one will hear them bragging of their outlaw behavior and how they profit from it. America's jails and prisons are packing citizens in like sardines. They are overflowing to such a dangerous extent, that we continually have to invent new early release programs for recidivist prisoners to make room for the incoming.
Growing numbers of employers and managers will attest to the fact that growing numbers of America's young work force have no manners, no sense of group, no sense of obligation to others. Pedophilia is a national disgrace in this country reflecting a corruption of the hearts and minds of so many of our society's members who act as though they cannot find love and acceptance in other ways. Our priests and ministers of morality lead the high profile stories of pedophilia. Violent rape, date rape, and drug rape, also mirror a corruption of the hearts and minds of America's citizenry.
It is not my purpose to explain why this social corruption grows like a cancer on our society. But, it is safe to say that when growing numbers of a nation's leaders from politicians to clergy to business leaders speak through floral and pastoral PR firm crafted speeches, all the while acting in contradiction to those speeches across decades and generations, it will have a pervasive effect on the corrupting of society as a whole. This corruption must be halted at the top if there is to be hope for a healthy normal state of the American ideal to trickle down through the society in the future. Government is the biggest and most visible institution in our society. To diminish corruption in the future, government must be made healthy again. And that will only happen if voters in increasing numbers vote out the corruption and replace it with new leaders with the stern warning that they too will have no incumbency if they fail to halt the corruption.
America is growing corrupt but, she can reverse it if citizens of integrity and honesty will demand an end to it. That means you and I, the voters, must act; for most of the current set of politicians are in too deep and too far gone.
Ron Brown said at :
9:23 AM, 02 11 2006 | Permalink
There's a lot of folks out there that disagre with you on this. Either they refuse to see the corruption, or they just don't believe that it's really that someone in that high of office could be corrupt.
I was talking to a women the other day at the store. She told me that I was being pessimistic. That our Representative, both our Senators, and the President only had our best intest at heart.
Either she has the blinders on and refuses to see it or she has been decieved into believing this.
Ron Brown | February 11, 2006 9:23 AM
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David R. Remer said at :
12:19 PM, 02 11 2006 | Permalink
She probably wants the peace and serenity that hope and trust and faith bring. And that is good as far as it goes. But, when that desire for personal serenity turns a blind eye to reality and posterity's future, I call such a person a selfish product of the "ME" generation. Not that historical generations were per person less selfish. But, a majority of leaders from previous generations were schooled in the idea that the fate of one's own welfare was intertwined with the welfare of the nation.
To seek personal gain while ignoring the welfare of the nation seems to be far more prevalent amongst leaders today, absent traits like duty, honor, integrity and shame of leaders in the past. Or past leader's maintenance of the appearance of those traits in their actions. To be honest, I believe too many of our leaders today suffer from a kind of delusion that power equals integrity, wielding power equals duty, and profiting from power to the detriment of others is a badge of elitist honor.
David R. Remer | February 11, 2006 12:19 PM
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Stephanie said at :
9:00 PM, 02 11 2006 | Permalink
I'm afraid you're right, David...though I do wonder which came first. Were the people corrupted first, and thus tolerate corrupted representatives? Or were the representatives corrupted first, showing people that doing things that way is a good way to get the quick buck?
Either way...despite the efforts of the few, the government is NOT going to clean itself up. They're in too deep to see what needs to be done. They're willing to make too many concessions for the sake of their own security. We, the People, NEED to act. We need to take our government back. The best way to do that is to use our vote wisely and vote against as many irresponsible incumbents as we have the right (not to mention the responsibility) to...that's the only way for us to peacefully save this country for our posterity.
Stephanie | February 11, 2006 9:00 PM
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David R. Remer said at :
4:17 AM, 02 12 2006 | Permalink
Stephanie, the question of which came first is one I have pondered at times since my college days back in the late 70's.
Freedom is anarchy without discipline and the ability to respond appropriately (responsibility). The United States is still a very youthful nation and has yet to reach its age of full potential responsibility (similar to a 16 year old with an automobile learner's permit), in my view.
We have in the past, had periods of very responsible government for its day and circumstances. Born out of leadership schooled in the classics of Ancient Greece and Rome and philosophy.
And like today, we have had periods of gross negligence and irresponsibility for that day and circumstance. Such is a time we now find ourselves in.
A society like Rome or China which survives many centuries relatively intact, experiences, according to many historians, a cyclical ebb and flow peaking and troughing but, keeping a core identity intact to survive difficult times that would be the downfall of other societies.
The US has that core identity to carry it through difficult times in its founding principles of rule of law, equality in the eyes of the law, justice in the affairs of its people and government of, by, and for the people. The greatest threat facing America's future as I see it, is losing confidence and faith in those core principles.
I see this happening as the experts and analysts in think tanks who are the advisors of the leaders of our nations government and business, are found redefining what is possible to far lower standards than were acceptable before. Many make the argument that society has become far more specialized and each person's specialization acts as a wedge of difference between them and their neighbor thus requiring a stronger more centralized and authoritarian government.
Others argue that the economics of our nation are the foundation upon which it was built and will survive or fail. Thus reducing our aspirations to dollars and cents pragmatism.
Still others argue the Republic is what is wrong with our nation and that direct democracy will put the onus and responsibility for success or failure of our future directly where it belongs, on the people themselves, thus inducing the people to grow up and take responsibility for their education and their rights and freedoms and as well as the consequences of apathy, ignornace and indifference.
None of these views however retain the pragmatic ideals imparted to us by our founding fathers. And that is where our salvation lies, I believe. Regardless of how the corruption began, bottom up, or top down, restoring honor, integrity, duty, and honesty must begin at the top where role models can be emulated. And it must begin with leaders who return to the principles of our founding fathers, rule of law, not men/women as paramount, sketpicism and vigilance over power through checks and balances, through oversight and absence of secrecy to the maximum extent possible, and limited government which participates in solutions to problems which cannot and will not be solved by the states and individuals.
We can have that kind of leadership again, if we the voters, just several million of us, will make incumbency earned by display of these actions, through an anti-incumbent vote toward those politicans who don't display these actions.
It will not be easy. It will not occur without setbacks and disappointments. But it will occur with several million voters of integrity, honesty, and a sense of duty to restore elected democracy based on performance. Which means voting out unresponsive incumbents and for challengers for as many elections as it takes, regardless of party, until democracy is restored to our Republic and to our people today, and our children for generations to come.
We must teach our children well these lesssons in civics and politics, encouraging and rewarding them to vote with pride, dignity, and purpose not for a party, but, for the candidates who will end the corruption, and restore the principled government envisioned by our founders.
David R. Remer | February 12, 2006 4:17 AM
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