Aug
9
The Crisis In America
Filed Under Uncategorized
Martin Meenagh has an interesting post about the Republican Party’s heritage of the Jacksonian populism of the Presidency of Andrew Jackson. Now Martin has a doctorate in American History (you can correct me on that Martin if necessary), so he has an opinion very much worth considering. Anyway, I’ve taken issue with some of his remarks in the comments over there. But Martin is always an insightful commentator and one particular comment he made in reply to mine was this:
The United States is a republic for a good reason. Democracy is about shouting and majorities and, for many, pig-ignorant behaviour; a republic is about the rule of law, debate, and proper representation. The crisis in America is that the worst ambitions, passions and behaviours of elites and of mobs seem to be taking over everything.
I think this is true. Reasonable discourse is a thing of the past. Whether it is conservative ‘mobs’ shouting down legislators, SEIU thugs beating up protesters, Democrats suddenly realising that religion is OK in political discourse when it shuts down debate or legislators losing it in the face of criticism or former Vice Presidential candidates referring to “death panels”. There is very little about this debate that is attractive.
And yet there are so many fundamental issues at stake. The left have many arguments to make in defence of their policy, and there are a great many reasonable objections to the issues. Unfortunately we have a left wing media and blogosphere who have suddenly come to the realisation that the people aren’t very important after all, a right wing media and blogosphere who exaggerate the implications of reform and a level of debate that makes the school yard look intellectual.
What is needed is an intelligent, unifying voice of reason to bring back sense to the process. Someone who is measured in his tone, someone who transcends traditional boundaries like race and partisanship. Someone who believes that “change” is important.
Unfortunately, we got lumbered with Barack Obama:
“I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I just want them to get out of the way”.
The great unifier in action.
Comments
4 Responses to “The Crisis In America”
Leave a Reply
Many thanks for the compliments, CC. I do worry that America is heading for a train-wreck this autumn, and I don’t like the way things look.
I did really like your post though. I hadn’t heard the Obama quote you ended with before–you’re very right about it having nothing to do with common ground. This crisis is a product of the sort of narcissism Christopher Lasch identified in the seventies, allied to an economic and commodity crisis and a deeply corrupted political system–god help everyone if people abandon civility!
Martin,
Obama and his minions have closed off any discussion or bi-partisan coming together…the arrogance of this President and Democratic Congress is not to be believed.
So far they have been able to ram through the stimulus and several other bills…but Americans are not going go quietly to our deaths…literally, with Obamacare.
I truly believe that the only reason we’ve been able to stop this horrendous healthcare bill so far is by abandoning civility. Democratic politicians regard civility on par to weakness and approval.
I hope you and everyone here will watch this video. This is what we are up against.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD_YOlUBoIk
I think the word Cabbie and others are looking for is ‘Statesman’.
There are very few politicians in any part of the world, let alone the USA who have statesmanship-like qualities.
I would kill for a Margaret Thatcher right now, yes even for a Mandela or a Reagan.
An American.
The appearance of the word ‘bi-partisan’ in one of your posts is the strangest thing I’ve seen in many a long year.