"Deck the Halls with Howls of Folly" By Richard Sale

By now everyone’s eyes are half blind from the endless glare of the electoral aurora borealis, and our ears deafened by the roar and rattle of the artillery of candidates seeking our vote. The call, ordinary vision that sees ordinary life as something urbane, dispassionate and good humored has been buried by tons of sludge composed mainly of falsehood, exaggeration and unsound hyperbole. It is a vile time. 

Most everyone knows the plain facts of life, but groups drastically vary in understanding their political importance of such facts. Both groups have but a limited understanding of the other. One party looks at the ideals of the other with skeptical distaste. Both can scarcely believe that the other can be of the same race and history. The result is that both are easily attracted by the flashy but unsound. 

 

Because of elections, many candidates have appeared to develop a sudden fondness for the stage. Things are now spoken to produce a dramatic effect. Vindictive spite had seized both parties. They peck and dismember anything they don’t like displaying a perverse littleness which rejects anything but their own habitual, narrow-minded, stunted notions. They ignore the plain, effective workings of government, nor do they note the parts of the machinery that work well and ignore the simple acts remedies that would raise the national level of the general welfare. 

Real Issues 

They can be stated briefly. What are the ideals of a country, and what part of the functioning of the government acts to uphold them?  

Everyone interprets those ideals in a different way. The incessant clamor of elections makes clear that the inert and incurious of both parties are only aroused to activity by annoyance and anger, one group living under the illusion that if they had been in power, they would have done infinitely more to bolster the welfare of the country than those who recently ruled. 

But what elections reveal is that most American people live lives of suppressed ill-feeling. The voters are hoarders of grudges. Every voter sees the result of current polices as producing nothing but a sense of being outraged, robbed, pushed aside, and made to feel small, diminished and subsidiary. They see the ones in power not as seekers are the truth, but as ruthless predators. They see their own ideas for change as blessed, and the ideas of their opponents as damned. 

Elections should attempt to bring out the best, not the worse in ordinary people. But in an election, larger objects elude people’s grasp. They fidget themselves and others to death with incessant anxiety about results. The real aim of elections is not praising or glorifying, but for condemning, rejecting, and rebutting.  Political contests ignore the essential and worthwhile while they fasten eagerly on defective. Elections make clear that democracy in America is a merely a system of well balanced hatreds. 

The results are extremely distasteful. To label differences of opinion as evil, acts to blind the eye of the mind with bias. Groups label each other as greedy, plundering and pitiless when actually both are simply rivals -- rivals for power, influence and monetary advantage. Wars with other groups act to abolish our inner wars; they act to abolish any ethnical element from any political struggle. For a group, the extension of its power is seen as key to its producing improvement in our national life. 

Vivid Differences?.

We have to remember that all societies are like a mountain range. There are lower regions and there are higher regions. 

One party, by means of experience and study, believes they have reached an understanding not only of the basic facts, but the political importance of those facts, while another group thinks in terms of narrow minded, unintelligent and incurious notions that momentarily dazzle. Even before an election occurs, many have not made any efforts to make their political leanings clear before their own minds, nor do they have the talents of analysis to suggest remedies that work for the welfare of all the people, which is a key goal of any government. 

Unfortunately, what engages both groups is a love of the theatrical elements of a contest, the exaggerated poses, the soaring abstractions, those promises that seem to liberate people from their limitations and aim to place them on high in glory atop some imperishable pedestal. Both groups like the flashy, the eye-catching, and they foolishly take to heart the promises that their worshippers offer them, pledging that obtaining worthwhile goals can easily obtained without effort.  In a new order they would create, and thanks to a mere change of personnel, accomplishments and improvements of a people and a civilization would suddenly be quick and effortless.

Observations 

Many people are adrift and must be guided gently down the rushing streams of vicious competition. Excitement blurs what is right versus what is clearly wrong. Both are usually half-right. 

It is unfortunate that the numerous mass usually doesn’t grasp how the vital parts of the government work.  Sometimes the most effective parts of government are the least noticed. The parties labor under a craving for something big, glorious, and transcendent without realizing they by no means do the mass have the means, talents or understanding to achieve it, nor do they understand that no government can provide it. 

Additional Observations 

All politics have their base in the unequal development of the capacities of the human race.

The public is mired in habit. A new development proposed for their improvement must square with their own habitual thoughts. “I have never heard such a thing in my life,’ my mother said when confronted with anything unusual. In politics, the half-understood is seen as a powerful political resource.   

In today’s contest, the whole drama centers on claims – those out of power claim that if they had power, they would have exercised it more effectively and done better to improve the country's welfare than those who did have it. The obvious probabilities of failure are swallowed up or ignored.   Party candidates argue that if they had mere power, Heaven would soon be installed on Earth. Some believe that to be true. 

What Counts 

The most effective parts of the government are not the ones that excite the most interest or even the most respect. In an election, what counts is not simply putting forth proposals - what matters is the spirit in which they are offered to people and whether benefits offered to the ordinary citizen are sound and aimed at improving the whole country. 

Some groups are completely unfit to consider a policy and the ramifications it holds for the future. Fragments of facts slowly drift down to their mind like the falling of autumn leaves, but they do not take root. They stir no thought, but thought is analysis. One must ask if they have the knowledge that enables them to judge decently and competently of such issues? 

A leader only goes where he thinks people already are or where they are likely to be in the future. If the average intellect truly saw selfish rapacity in a policy he or she would act to rebuff it. If the citizen saw the unscrupulous elements of a policy, they must have the talent to dissect it, to take out the poisonous elements and examine them and render them harmless. It is a misfortune that few do this. 

Vested Interests 

“All important laws affect large ‘vested interests;’ said the master historian Walter Bagehot. “They touch great sources of political strength; and those great interests require to be treated as delicately, and with a nice manipulation of language, as the feelings of any foreign country.” In America such interests are part of and serve a plutocracy. Such a development has aroused little popular indignation. Many further the plutocracy without knowing it, assisting the greedy notions of the rich. The narrow self seeking of some parts of the plutocracy seem to have blinded the electorate who treat them carelessly. Some groups hesitate to criticize the operations of vested interests, dodging the responsibility of putting them out into the open, arguing that such exposure would impair the workings of the country when just the opposite is true. 

Conclusions 

What should be at stake in are our elections are ultimate objectives to which all of our immediate aims should have reference. Instead, what we see today in our political controversy is in many cases, a deterioration of the social and intellectual conscience, a smothering of the critical spirit when it comes to the vital issues of public life. Great ends are to be achieved by tawdry, underhanded and inadequate means. Heaven is to be won using the methods of hell. 

I believe that all of us should support the intangible factors of knowledge and common sense in judging the proposal of political leaders at this angry, troubled time.

Comments

[Nancy K]

An excellent article Mr. Sale, thank you. It seems we are an angry country and the ongoing campaigns of mud slinging, name calling and outright lies seem to have replaced baseball as our national sport. With 4 billion dollars spent on this midterm election what it shows is that we do not have the best democracy money can buy. We are being cheated.

[Valissa]

Here are some interesting articles I've come across lately that relate to your theme above, though coming from different perspectives.

As an independent voter myself, I appreciated this piece...
Yes, Independent Swing Voters Are Real. And May Decide Who Wins Elections http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/03/how-swing-voters-keep-washington-divided.html

Vote all you want. The secret government won’t change. The people we elect aren’t the ones calling the shots, says Tufts University’s Michael Glennon http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2014/10/18/vote-all-you-want-the-secret-government-won-change/jVSkXrENQlu8vNcBfMn9sL/story.html?p1

Book Review of… ‘National Security and Double Government’ by Michael J. Glennon http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2014/10/18/review-national-security-and-double-government-michael-glennon/tUhBBdSj8s0WW1HoWUf20M/story.html

Here is a paper that Glennon wrote, on the theme of his book, for the Harvard National Security Journal... http://harvardnsj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Glennon-Final.pdf

[Bobo]

Great article but the Truth always Hurts. Another election and 50% or less accepted the responsibility of their citizenship and voted. I believe there is value in the Purple Thumb as at least then those without a stained thumb can be shamed for their lack of responsibility.
Something is in the water up there in the Commonwealth of Virginia as of this writing there is a whooping going on though only 50% of the vote is in. Hats off to the independent people of those rolling hills.

[kim sky]

ANY THOUGHTS ???

"disciplinary actions against senior officers in the nuclear war command"

not ready for war, too ready for war ?

thanx, kim

[turcopolier]

kim sky

If you knew anything you would be dangerous. There is no "nuclear war command." senior officers do not make decisions to go to war. The idiot civilians that we elect do that. pl

[Cee]

It is a vile time.

Indeed it is.

The long con worked.

People are going to get what they deserve for voting in those who take legal bribes, in addition to our tax dollars in the form of health benefits (that they don't want for others) and a fat paycheck to then drown the very government that is supposed to represent US! WTH.

Grover Norquist - I just want to shrink it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.

Why Do Republicans Hate Government?
http://themoderatevoice.com/34855/why-do-republicans-hate-goverment/

How the Koch Brothers Orchestrated the Shutdown

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-zuesse/how-the-koch-brothers-did_1_b_4143928.html

WI-Gov: Koch Brothers Spend Big To Dupe Voters By Propping Up Pro-Weed Libertarian Candidate
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/04/1341557/-WI-Gov-Koch-Brothers-Spend-Big-To-Dupe-Voters-By-Propping-Pro-Weed-Libertarian-Candidate

You can't blame The Kenyan. Look in the mirror.

[kim sky]

turcopolier ...

then perhaps having added this question about Nuclear Missile Command to this post about IDIOT CIVILIANS (politicians) versus ANY REAL -- was not such a bad idea?

does seem weird to me?

[Cee]

All,

I forgot to add something about our latest senator who will be given the best health care money can buy.

Ernst Thinks Churches Should Provide Health Care

Joni Earnst, the Tea Party-aligned Republican Senate candidate from Iowa, doesn’t understand why anyone would need health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Why can’t they just go to the churches and get antibiotics, vaccines or open heart surgery?

In audio obtained by Iowa Public Radio, Senate hopeful Joni Ernst told a group of reporters that the reason Republicans oppose Obamacare is because the job of caring for the poor is simply not the purview of government. The poor, she said, should rely on churches and charitable organizations for help.

“We’re looking at Obamacare right now,” Ernst said. “Once we start with those benefits in January, how are we going to get people off of those? It’s exponentially harder to remove people once they’ve already been on those programs.”

“We have lost a reliance on not only our own families, but so much of what our churches and private organizations used to do,” she went on. “They used to have wonderful food pantries. They used to provide clothing for those that really needed it, but we have gotten away from that. Now we’re at a point where the government will just give away anything. We have to stop that.”

Maybe she thinks that if sick people go to a church instead of a doctor, they can be faith-healed instead of having their medical conditions treated. And people say the Republicans don’t have a viable alternative on health care…

[elkern]

Election season makes me glad I took John Prine's advice to "blow up your TV" a couple years ago (though it wasn't that exciting - I just stopped paying the cable bill). I watch TV only at my exercise joint - almost exclusively sports - and I switch channels during ads, so I can usually avoid the political crap. But it's been obvious for a while that all the political ads fall focus on two things: I've got a nice family, and the Other Guy is BAD. Mostly the latter.

I think some of this is an unfortunate side-effect of the type of Democracy we invented here - "Plurality Wins" - which inadvertly led to the two-party system. A few states have run-offs when one candidate doesn't get a majority (ie LA), and some have experimented with open primaries with a similar effect (CA), but most of us are stuck voting for the "lesser evil" - mostly voting against the Other Guy.

Us Greens have been pushing for Instant Runoff Voting (IRV - google it) for a while, and I think it would lead to more polite & positive elections - once we get some viable "third" parties. In traditional "plurality Wins" elections, voting for a third-party candidate is (not unreasonably) disparaged as a wasted vote.

Also known as "Ranked Preference Voting", IRV allows voters to chose theire 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc choices in any single-office election. If no candidate gets 50% of the 1st place votes, the votes cast for the last-place candidate get shifted to their 2nd place candidate & the votes are recalculated. This continues until one candidate gets over the 50% mark.

This kind of voting could engourage candidates to try to win 2nd-place votes from independent voters - possible leading to more positive campaigns.

Hey, it's worth a try. What we've got now is badly broken.

But there's a bigger problem which IRV doesn't address: MONEY. Good luck with that one.

[Fred]

Kim,

Is this what you are refering too?

http://news.yahoo.com/2-nuke-commanders-fired-another-disciplined-000334863--politics.html

[turcopolier]

Cee

Get a grip! Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes... Do you want these people banned from voting and holding office? We all would have individualized lists. pl

[rjj]

Iowa is not urban, Cee.

[Fred]

Elkern,

"most of us are stuck voting for ..."
You left out the option of running for office.

[Fred]

Cee,

You mean all those Iowan's who voted for her don't actually agree with Senator elect Ernst's views but they are just poor dupes?

[Larry Kart]

Heard some bits on the car radio from Obama's afternoon press conference while it was happening. Judging by his tone of voice, he seemed deeply relieved, perhaps along the lines of "Hey, guess I don't have to govern much anymore now, apart from an international crisis or two, and even there..."

Also this, from a friend who served yesterday as an election judge in Chicago:

"The highlight came at the end -- when it was time to count the ballots cast -- and one of our four judges (a fifth had called in sick) declared: 'I can't count.'"

Larry Kart

[Cee]

Col Lang,

LOL. Forgive me...I don't what that bear comment means.

I don't want people banned from voting, nor do I want literacy tests, as some in the GOP want. Even veterans couldn't vote in this election for being in the wrong party or presenting the wrong ID.

An example of the GOP mindset that lives on

Paul Weyrich – “I don’t want everybody to vote”
http://blog.cesinaction.org/2011/08/31/gop-at-work-undermining-our-democracy-in-coordinated-effort-to-take-away-your-right-to-vote/

I do want people to use common sense and not vote against their own interests.

West Virginia is another example of the Iowa voters.

Capito is the new senator, even after taking donations ( don't care if it was a penny) because she is or will be beholding to her campaign donors, one of whom
caused the spill that contaminated WV's water.
She even said that the EPA regulations should be rolled back.

Just stunning.

[Laura Wilson]

Cee--It is indeed odd that the exit polls indicated that people were voting against the Dems because the economy was worse than it was two years ago…it isn't. Objectively, it is better. In addition to the long lie…it is the big lie.

Not great…but definitely better. It is also amazing that raising the minimum wage passed in so many red states. When it gets THAT basic, people do know how to vote their economic self-interest.

Odd times…bad media = odd voting patterns.

[Laura Wilson]

Cee--I wonder if she will turn down her benefits and refuse to go to the VA for the rest of her life. I'm sure her church will take care of it all!

[Laura Wilson]

Turbocopier--LOL, we would all, indeed, have individualized lists! Thanks for a reality check and chuckle.

[Fred]

Laura,

What measure of objectivity are you using to state the economy is better?

[Macgupta123]

Steve Farley (D), a state senator in Arizona, wrote:

"I understand why people didn't turn out, since candidates' expressions of why folks should vote FOR them were drowned out by their consultants' and backers' ads yelling about why folks should vote AGAINST their opponents. And, call me old-fashioned, but I believe reasonable, moderate people turn out when they feel motivated to vote FOR someone.

But I don't accept that as an excuse. As Americans, our founders bequeathed us a grand democratic experiment that depends on an informed, motivated electorate that takes part in the public realm in the form of elections. People in new democracies around the world proudly wave their purple-inked thumbs in the air after waiting in line for hours on end, braving marauding gangs in some cases, to exercise their hard-fought right to vote. Surviving negative 30-second spots to find out the truth on our own and then vote that truth doesn't seem so hard in comparison as a way to honor that sacred trust we all share as Americans."

[Cee]

Laura,

You jest. LOL!!

[William R. Cumming]

Just noting for the record lowest voter turnout for 2014 mid-term elections in 72 years.

[elkern]

I ran for office, twice, as a Green. Town Council, then State Rep. Lost handily both times (did I mention I was a Green Party candidate?), but had some fun & raised some new issues each time. If I ever run for State legislature again, I'd make IRV (or some similar method) a top issue. The current electoral process discourages third parties & therefore new ideas.

[elkern]

Alright! Sounds like fun! Have you continued to hunt those varmints?