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Originally Posted by AtLastHome
Yes, OUR mess! And well deserved at times! So tired of talking point, bumper sticker, Wiki blurb quick-click research and just thinking like your best friend political unconsciousness. Frankly, I would rather have less less uninformed voters voting. And most certainly less knee-jerk voters going to the polls. And don't even get me started on the lack of motivation to give a few hours a month to issues and causes effecting our everyday lives. I often think that most people in the US are just fine with the Congressional deadlock we have.. they would rather take pot shots than take responsibility for what our elected officials do.
I know I can always do more, read more, even care more and if things remain disfunctional, I better be willing to take some personal blame if I'm doing nothing but sitting on my ass, bitching. My stances may not be what ends up being adopted, but, I am part of a conscious effort to effect change.
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In Susan Jacoby's book "The Age of American Unreason" she relates an incident that I think is a poignant picture of who we once were in this country. I don't have the book with me at work so I cannot give you a verbatim quote but I'll relate it as best I can. FDR was going to give a fireside chat on the war, so this was probably early 1942 or so, and announced the week before that he would be talking about the Pacific Theatre of operations and urged people to go and buy maps. Across this country maps *sold out*. People then gathered around the radio, map spread out on the kitchen table or the living room floor and listened to FDR talk about what was happening in the Pacific.
Several things immediately leap to mind as to what we have lost. Firstly, an American President talked to the American people as if they could understand the complexities of the Pacific war. He wasn't talking specific tactics or actions planned. Just laying out the stakes. Secondly, the American people actually went out and bought maps so
they could follow along and understand what was being said. Instead of deciding that it was too much work, or accusing Roosevelt of being just like Stalin, they went and bought maps and assumed that they too could understand what was happening. I'm not talking policy wonks, I'm talking people like my mother (18 in 1941) and my grandmother (35 with nothing more than a 4th grade education *maybe*). Farmers and mechanics, housewives, teachers and street sweepers assumed that they too could look on a map and evaluate what the President was saying. Their country was at war, the least they could do was know where and why.
Can you imagine an American President--ANY American President--asking the American people to go and buy maps or download the CIA World Factbook (and if you don't already have it bookmarked then do so--it's a great resource for anything you want to know about a country that is quantifiable and/or empirical)? Can you imagine the hew and cry that would be raised? Can you imagine what would happen if the President were to give a radio or TV address where he asked people to listen with their map at hand? I can hear it right now. All over FOX the President would be accused of elitism, of being out of touch with ordinary Americans, of having his nose stuck in the air(provided the POTUS was a Democrat). How many people do you know who would go to Google, download Google Earth (free) or go to the CIA and download the Factbook (free and takes up about 150 MB unzipped)? How many would actually bother to listen and follow along?
I don't know what happened to us but once upon a time, in my parents (and for most of you reading this your grandparent's) time we really *were* these people. We actually behaved this way. Now, we could say that we lost it because we became a more diverse society but I don't buy that. We could blame TV--but again, I don't really buy that one although it's a little more plausible. Ultimately, I think we just became a culture that is lazy and in becoming so lazy we lost confidence in ourselves. Not the 'USA! USA!' confidence which isn't confidence but is braggadocio. Rather, I mean the confidence that it took to say "well, I'm not a college graduate but I can read a map, I have ears and eyes and I can follow this". THAT kind of confidence.
There is a story, possibly apocryphal, from the Revolutionary period. After the Constitutional Convention, Franklin was asked what kind of government they had created. He responded "A Republic, if you can keep it". Notice that he didn't say "if the government can keep it" or "if the media can keep it" but if YOU--a citizen--can keep it. He was speaking to a man of his own time but he was also speaking to us in our time. This Republic does not belong to JP Morgan Chase or Goldman-Sachs. It doesn't belong to Rupert Murdoch or Roger Aisles. It belongs to you, to me, to all 300 million of us each individually.
Yes, the Founders were all heterosexual, white men about half of whom were slaveholders and almost all of whom had very unflattering things to say about blacks and women and others. So what? They are dead and their bones are dust so it doesn't really matter. Yes, the Constitution was flawed and is still less than perfect. Find me one thing that humans have built that was perfect. This is our country, OUR Republic. The Founders bet that an
educated and informed populace could keep a Republic going. I see no reason to doubt that this is true. The problem we face is that our public is no longer educated or informed and many do not want to be, preferring the quick fix of emotionally satisfying jingoism or pseudo-cynicism (which is really high idealism masquerading as cynicism).
This is our mess. If any bums need to be thrown out, it's us. We let it come to this.
Cheers
Aj