The Fundamental Question
Posted by Tony Mitchell under Economy, Environment, Republican Party, Democratic Party, Healthcare, Government, Ethics, Civil Disobedience, Justice, Democracy, Education, Libertarian Party, 2008 Presidential Candidates, Christian (Blue) Left, Christian (Red) Right, Political Philosophy, 2006 U.S. Elections, Politics at 7:20 pm.I think that everyone, at some point in their lives, must answer two fundamental questions. The first must always be “Do you believe in God and salvation?”
There is no right or wrong answer to this particular question, though there will be enough people who will tell you that your answer is right or wrong. Of course, they will define for you what the right answer is and what the wrong answer is. But the answer to this question can only be found in your heart and you have to be prepared to deal with the answer that you come up with.
But it is clear that there are too many people in this country and in this world today who feel that they have the right, the power, and the authority to tell you what the answer is. And they will tell you what will happen to you if you fail to answer the question the way that they tell you.
That is part of the problem in this country and the world today. We willingly let others tell us or try to tell us what to think, what to say, what to do. We willingly let others tell us what our future will be. And when our future begins to unravel and the world around us falls apart, we have nothing to fall back on. When our future begins to unravel and the world around us falls apart, we look around and wonder where we went wrong. We wonder why this country is in the shape it is and we wonder why, for all that this country has in terms of resources and ability, that nothing gets done.
We see people without sufficient healthcare. And I would point out that the older one gets, the worse the ability to provide healthcare gets. And it is not just healthcare; we have limited dental care; we have limited optical care. And we don’t get mad.
We see people living in the streets or under bridges. We read about the rising numbers of foreclosures and we wonder where the land of opportunity has gone. Oh yes, there have been laws passed that are supposed to help people in the current housing crisis. But it is limited help and only for certain people. And it will not necessarily stop the foreclosures.
I am not old enough to have lived through the Great Depression. My father and uncle were teenagers through its later stages and young men as World War II started. My grandfather’s last entry in his diary spoke of the promise and hope that the country felt when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933. My grandfather was a Captain in the U. S. Army at that time and had been a Captain for the better part of the time from the end of World War I and this pivotal moment in American history. In the same entry where he suggested that there was hope for the country, he noted that he was being paid ¾ of his regular pay; the Great Depression extended far beyond the soup-lines and shanty towns of our modern day history books.
And that leads me to the second fundamental question that each one of us must answer at some point in time, “What are your politics?” It is not enough to say that one is liberal, conservative, or libertarian. Politics can be defined as the process by which a group of people make decisions that affect other’s lives.
I have come to the conclusion that labels such as liberal, conservative, or libertarian no longer apply when one is discussing politics. The fact of the matter is that no matter what side of the political spectrum a person may say they are on, it is quite clear that they are only in favor of those things that we get them elected. Politics have become the art and science of determining what the people want and how it can be achieved at the lowest cost for them and for those who seek election. And it has often been said that the basic rule of politics is to get reelected.
Now we can point out many politicians, on both sides of the aisle, who have done great things. And there are those politicians who have brought home the “bacon” for the people of their district. (Remember that rule #2 in politics is that only money spent on government projects in other congressional districts is “pork”; it is for jobs when it is spent in one’s own district). But in the end, it is always what the politician can do to get reelected.
We readily seek labels that will help us identify with the winning political party in hopes that somehow we will benefit from their largesse. How else can you explain the number of working class voters who have voted Republican in the past few years? Nothing in the Republican rhetoric ever suggested anything to me that the working class would benefit from the election of Republicans; oh, there was mention of more money through tax cuts but, many times, when there is a cut in Federal taxes, there is a rise in State taxes to offset the loss of revenue. But the people accepted the rhetoric and the scare tactics that accompanied the rhetoric.
Now, some will tell me that it is better to be a conservative so that you can make the decision about how to spend your money. And I suppose that is true but the majority of conservatives that I have heard or read have no feelings whatsoever for the poor or lower classes in this country. “I got mine; let them get their own,” seems to be the mantra.
And the majority of liberals will say that we have to have the Federal Government involved or the problem will never be solved. But the problems have never been solved and it seems that many of the modern day liberals need the poor or lower classes to justify their existence. But the people accepted the rhetoric and the scare tactics that accompanied the rhetoric.
And the majority of the American people will say that they don’t want money spent on schools or hospitals or roads or anything but they will complain when their children can’t get a quality education, the local hospital closes because it was bought out by a major corporation, and the bridges and roads deteriorate and the cost of a bus ride or a subway ride keeps going up.
At some point in time, we have to stop this process of politics by fear and special interests. At some point in time, we have to stop and say that politics is about each individual collectively and together. At some point in time, we have to realize that we are moving in the wrong direction but that we have the time and the ability to change our direction.
If one’s belief in God is personal, then one’s political beliefs are public. For whether we care to admit it or not, we are all in this together. And that brings up the most fundamental question of all times, “What are you going to do about it?”
The Times They Are A-Changin’ (Bob Dylan, 1963)
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
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Cross-posted to Thoughts From The Heart On The Left