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Disconcerted
and Discontent
By: Lorenzo Dee Belveal
The current
methodology we pursue in the selection of successive presidents is surely the most threatening force imaginable to
the very existence of popular elections, if not the nation, itself. Instead of a rational procedure, the campaign exercise
has been reduced to the worst aspects of a t-v soup commercial, and the hollow
spiel employed by a carnival barker, in his efforts to draw patrons into
the freak show tent. But decibels aside, the
"yokels" aren't buying it.
The
unmistakable, if latent, message from the ballot box is that - for
whatever reason - the vast majority of potential American
voters have simply "unplugged" from the quadrennial "silly season". They
clearly have more engaging, higher priority things to do.
Pollsters continue to hawk
their flawed punditry with a contrived tone of urgency,
as if somebody really gives a damn, but the reality is that they are preaching to a relatively small political 'choir' that - for
reasons of self-interest, a seat on the
political gravy-train, or some other quasi-illicit attraction, makes their involvement in politics rewarding enough as to be almost
mandatory.
The
pollsters tell us that forty-seven percent of the Lower Slobovians support Tweedle-dee, and and fifty-four percent prefer
Tweedle-dum - with some three percent of the
Slobovians undecided. But a far more
significant number is that some sixty percent
of the eligible voters will not show up to mark a ballot for
anyone!
Why would they?
The very process of candidate selection is an
affront to the basic intelligence of anyone with the capacity to read a newspaper. The candidates are spouting their nonsense and fervently parroting their
impossible promises to the very same people they will - in the event - force to pay for
their fiscal stupidities, give-away programs, administrative
ineptitude and general prodigality. Most
people who have lived long enough
to be entitled to vote, have also observed enough practicing politicians to
understand how the game is played, regardless
of the background music provided.
That
the candidates actually expect their presumed constituency to accept this unending serving of political tripe as a
credible version of truth is, indeed, the greatest insult
of all. The hooey that brings happy cries of
support from the ward-heelers and party
hacks, will not suffice for thinking people who approach their voting function as an intellectual exercise, rather than a
predetermined, quadrennial knee-jerk reaction.
Popular government, as dished up in the United
States of America, no longer captures the interest or imagination of the very
people who have to remain involved in order
for it to work. American politics has been prostituted, perverted
and trivialized by a cadre of small minds and even shorter visions, to the extent that -
try as they might to generate some excitement around the hackneyed themes, they
can no longer "draw the crowd", as
the pitchmen put it on the carnival midway.
A few years ago there was a bitter-sweet query,
"What if they gave a war, but nobody
came?"
Cast this same question in the frame
of an election. "What if they scheduled
an election, but nobody came to vote." The noble vision encaptured in the phrase, "Government of, by and for the
people" loses its luster when the realityis that the
key function of citizenship, voting, can now draw less than half of those entitled to do
so.
So the glorious phrase that has
epitomized America for two-hundred-fifty years of
nationhood, now - de facto - becomes "Government of the minority, by the minority and
for the minority" -- all of whom must be
presumed to have some kind of an 'axe to
grind', else they would skip the ballot box also, in favor of spending the day fishing or playing golf.
"Obligation" is repeatedly
spouted as if it were the essential reason for people
to vote and otherwise take an active role in
the rites of citizenship. But obligation is not enough of an incentive. Either
people - even good, loyal, patriotic people - vote,
serve on juries, and otherwise meet the requirements of citizenship because they think their involvement is important (read:
makes a difference) or they don't do it at all. The
unavoidable conclusion for the disenchanted citizen - in whom the patriotic nerve has
been killed by decades of political buffoonery and partisan irresponsibility – is to see
nothing imperative in his getting deeply involved in the affairs of his country.
The more the gaggle of political pundits - and
their tiresome claque - point with pretended pride and view with phony alarm, the more things tend to remain the same.
But
whether things do seem to improve - or denigrate - political smoke and mirrors so obfuscate the events as to make it
impossible to discern any sensible link between political cause and civil effect.
Result: Whatever happens, whether beneficial or
disastrous, everybody shares an implied portion of the credit or blame. Neither can anyone lay personal claim to credit,
or assign personal blame to anyone else, because we are all in this thing together -
whether for good or ill. We fashion our own collective and individual
futures by what we do - or don't do; by the obligations we undertake - or shirk. By the faith we sustain against all odds - or the pessimism we harbor, because whatever
happens seems, somehow, to regularly fall
short of our loftiest hopes or blue-skied expectations.
The "summer soldiers" and the
"fair-weather patriots" are quick to revile the
system of freedom that fails to deliver
whatever measure of comfort, pleasure and affluence they choose to believe is their
natural entitlement, just because they happen to live within
the defining borders of America. They impose
this demanding yardstick with rarely if ever a
thought for evaluating their own personal contribution to the end result - and that they all
too often find so very disappointing. Whatever
the rationale, be sure that any misfortune that attends
will be assignable to others. In our present
national mind-set, only success is deemed a personal
accomplishment.
Nowhere
is this doctrine more evident than in the vapid and nonsensical electoral charade that we play out each four years,
and that is ostensibly intended to select the best and wisest among us, to fill the
crucial positions of political leadership.
America is in patriotic decline. How could it be otherwise? Patriotism is no longer either fashionable nor
much admired.
Joseph de Maistre said it: "Every country has the government it
deserves."
------------ E N D -----------
Lorenzo Dee Belveal
==========================
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March 11, 2004 |
