Letters to the Editor
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Awesome Essay
Wow. Succinct, to the point. Excellent essay. Are there other places to post this? I'm sending it to everyone I know.
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Keith Speaks For Us!
Thank you, Keith, for speaking truth to those in power.
My neighbor, Sean, a 35 year-old man with a wife and 3 kids, told me today, "These Republicans think that we have an attention span this big (as he held his thumb and fore-finger one inch apart)." He went on, "They think that we forget their crimes by putting on TV the escapades of Paris Hilton".
Are the rest of the media asleep? I hope not. Today is July 4th and I recall the words of Ben Franklin, 'We have given you a good government. Now see if you can keep it.'
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Amusing
It's amusing watching this many people get really worked up about a TV show host calling for Bush's resignation on a cable news network watched by less than one percent of American adults. Like anyone in power, Republican or Democrat cares what Keith Olbermann thinks.
Just remember, there are more people watching Fox than MSNBC (albeit both are in the 1% range). So, unless people figure out how to say something that might persuade another person, all the emotion and venom is for nothing.
PhillieJoe, the above doesn't apply to you. I thought you wrote a reasonable comment which of course means that no one bothered to have a conversation with you.
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ah rhetoric
Well, Olbermann is quite the speaker, and I want to believe he is correct, but unfortunately his whole outlook relies on some image of American government that is basically a shared delusion. Our current leaders may have been terrible politicians by making the executive abuse of power for political purposes explicitly clear to anyone paying attention, but when was that power used for anything but politics? The only difference I see is that new ideologies are stiring in America and as long as the pres puts on that face (fundamentalism, neoconservatism) he no longer has the neccesity to put on the face of democracy as we once knew it. That ideological base has dwindled to the point you no longer even have to prove yourself constitutionally "American" to get yourself into a position of power. Maybe all of us here, all of us thoughtful and well read liberals and conservatives, understand that foundational myth of american government, understand its neccesity, even if the president often acts undemocratically, as has been happening ever since the president became a celebrity, even if the congress was too wrapped up in itself to ever get anything done, even if the courts swayed one way or another. The neccisity of the myth, of that face, of democratic progress was to maintain a culture of democratic values, so citizen's were living that ideology, treating dissent with respect and acting out of a sense of progress, not fear. But what has happened to that? Politcians sold out this country for themselves and other ideologies long ago. Can we pin it down exactly, was it Reagan's turning blatant self-interest into a political ethos? Clinton's selling out of the working classes by turning to corporate funding and signing Nafta? Or Bush's wholehearted embrace of a type of neo-facism in fundamentalism? If only patriotism, in its grandest sense, as the belief in the your country's potential for making itself and the world a better place, was still thought about by any one. The conservative's in power have embraced another ethos, and anyone who remains liberal can't justify our actions abroad, our lack of political concern for the poor of our own country, or the incessant empty celebrations of our corporations as they oppress and colonize the world, as having anything to do with goodness. That myth Olberman wants to reconstruct about America, about patriotism, that myth we need desperately as a country to find some sense of unity and goodness, has all but evaporated from our culture. Bush and Cheney just make it obvious.
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Founding Patriots sought to create a thinking Republic
Blessed 4th of July.
Regardless of covenient labels that seem to color discourse (liberal/conservative) or so called ideological locations (left/right)the fact is that Mr. Olbermann's article touches the very core of the reason for the existence of the United States a land were people could express honest opinion and descent without been locked away in a dungeon or tossed into the sea. The Founding Patriots sought to create a thinking Republic were individuals instead of following the cattle mentality of being horded into one direction would be able to debate and come to consensus on issues, rights and freedoms.
The reality is that this gift has been essentially eroded and has been given a definate death blow with the pseduo-pardoning of Mr. Libby dressed as a conmutation of sentence. The USA has traditionally tried to hone the moral high ground on other countries on the issue of accountability of those in public office. Slapping others around as corrupt, irresponsible and oriented towards nepotism and cronyism, however, this administration has made obvious to the world that the evils once decried by the US about others is alive and sickning well in their own backyard.
This does not prompt a hooray from my part or any of us who have looked at US democracy as a model (not ideal or perfection),but it is a sad time because overt hypocrisy as become shattering reality. The overt hypocrisy to which folk in the United States need to awake too is that the line: "best political system in the world" has become now more words than actual substance. The Founding Patriots would be agast at the frightning authoritarian and monarchic style of leadership that has evolved in the last six years and how their thinking Republic were debate and descent were to be viewed as valuable tools for preserving democracy has been utterly demolished.
The challenge now is to regain the critical mindset that lead the Founding Patriots to establish the Republic. Mindless following of politicians, abject ignorance of world history, geography and the diversity of culture and faith must be refounded in a new enlightenment that will place politicos in their rightful place - mere humans who need to be examined and questioned in their assumptions so that their parroquialism may not become the countries vision and rule of law- only this concerted effort by all Americans will return the Republic to "We the people"
A last Mr. Olbermann's requiem notes that they should resign but I am sure that he knows as well as I know that people of this ilk, zealots and self-righteous authoritarians never resign they would rather destroy the structure than allow it to be reformed or rebuilt. Your next choice for political leadership will be the true test of your love for the idea of the thinking Republic will you sit at home and allow voter turnout to be in the 40 and 50 percentile or will you rise up and make it a unique experience of heavy turn out and challenge to the politicos and their patrons that the Democracy is truly the province of the people and not of those who can afford to buy themselves into power.