Who woulda thunk it? Iran won The Iraq War.
"The Power of Pride" came before a fall...
Dear Rob,
On Diane Rehm today, former New Jersey governor Christie Todd Whitman described the structure and aims of "Americans Elect." http://thedianerehmshow.
Other references to this organization include:
1.) "Americans Elect" described by the Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0729/Americans-Elect-launches-centrist-third-party-bid-amid-Washington-dysfunction
2.) "Americans Elect" - Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/
3.) "Americans Elect" - "Pick a president, not a party": http://www.
Clearly, "Americans Elect" will not enjoy smooth sailing "out of the gate."
Nevertheless, AE is imbued with promise - both in itself, and what it might evolve into.
The nub of our national conundrum is this: Refusal to compromise is deadly.
Whatever "Pure Principles" people "think" they're defending, intransigence is killing democratic process.
It should be clearly stated that the animus underlying this "principled intransigence" is essentially theocratic. "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." Blaise Pascal - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal
No doubt there are defensible arguments in support of theocracy.
However, if Americans consider themselves bound to the Constitution, they will acknowledge that theocracy is essentially anti-democratic.
Churchill's insight is still the best: "Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried..." § Speech in the House of Commons (1947-11-11)
Even so, without comprehensive education (predicated on primary regard for Reason and Intellectual Rigor), democracy degenerates to idiocracy... and then to mobocracy.
Tragically, the mob's first impulse is noisy surrender to populist demagogues or fascist bullies.
We have all heard the disputed saying, "When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in a flag and waving a cross." http://technoccult.net/archives/2010/03/03/who-really-said-when-fascism-comes-to-america-it-will-come-wrapped-in-the-flag-and-waving-a-cross/
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections and errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.” Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander by Rev. Thomas Merton - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Merton
If nothing else, "Americans Elect" could inspire the kind of reflection about Democracy that is essential to the maintenance of Democracy.
Any thoughts?
Pax on both houses,
Alan
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