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On the Rising Tide: Radio Essay for September 17, 2011
A year divisible by four is usually a leap year but is always a Presidential election year. We find ourselves on the cusp of both. It won’t actually be 2012 for a few more months but you could hardly tell given all the rhetoric and the posturing. We are knee deep in the Presidential season now and we cannot pull back from the edge even if we wanted to do so. Correct me if I am wrong but no matter on what side of the political divide you may fall, I bet you cannot wait for November 2012 to come. I do not normally wish away time but this beauty contest is going to go down to the wire and not much is likely to happen in the intervening months to make much of a difference to the average American citizen when it comes to the great economic calamity we face. I believe the Presidential decision in November 2012 will be between a semi-conservative and ultra-liberal. All things considered a pretty clear choice. And given events of recent days, I learn towards the conservative side prevailing.
If you were born in the year 1923, you would be 88 years old. Imagine what you would have experienced: the Roaring 20’s and the boring 50’s; Charles Lindberg in the Spirit of St. Louis and Neil Armstrong at Tranquility Base; the Stock Crash of 1929 and the Stock Crash of 2008; the Dustbowl and the Super Bowl; fascism and feminism; defense war bonds and Gary US Bonds; Jackie Robinson and Mrs. Robinson; Rosa Parks and Rosie O’Donnell; Osama in the dog house and Obama in the White House. There are a lot of unforeseen events that changed our society. But one thing that has not been seen since 1923 is a Republican Representative in what is now the Ninth Congressional District of New York.
Bob Turner is not a household name and may never become one. He is the newest Republican to enter Congress after the Awakening of 2010. If New York hacks have their way, his district will be gerrymandered out of existence before the next election but I think it will not matter.
My children and I used to play a game on the beach we called “castling.” We would build elegant sand castles along the ocean’s edge and attempt to forestall the inevitable rise of the tide with elaborate berms of sand and water diverting channels and even the use of the occasional prone body. The tide always won. And it will continue to win. Mr. Turner’s victory is a harbinger of discontent in the land. Mr. Turner is a retired businessman not a career politician.
Is anybody listening? Special elections are a unique breed of election. They disrupt the natural order of things. Open seats elections are sought after since the power of incumbency is neutralized. Nothing is at stake for a career politician challenger since they do not have to relinquish any seat they may hold. But special elections are often “come-as-you-are” affairs since they are unplanned and provide a chance for opportunistic wannabees. They have the ability to provide a snapshot of the body politic. It does not allow for the machine to fully get into gear. Funding is off cycle. They provide a rare glimpse into “pure” politics.
If we have learned one thing from the New York ninth it is this: stand by for heavy rolls. The electorate is mad-as-hell –and-won’t-take-it-anymore. “Take what,” you say? Business as usual. No one is immune from the wrath of the electorate. The true electorate are the people who vote, by the way. They are not the people who get polled by the New York Times or CNN. They are the people who work and pay taxes and wonder how they are going to meet next month’s bills in the face of declining income, impending unemployment, diminishing savings, and all sorts of uncertainties that the Political Class in Washington have not a clue about. Employment security for incumbent Congressmen is being called into question.
If I have to handicap the election 14 months out, the edge goes to the Republicans, especially those new ones who were elected within this decade. For anyone in their 10th term or beyond, in either party, it is time to justify ones existence. A wave of new citizen legislators is upon us. A careers worth of experience in politics is no longer an asset. It is a liability. Look for “career politicians” to humanize themselves and tell you that they feel your pain.
They don’t. It is your pain. Only someone who has walked a mile in your shoes can understand that. If you have been employed by Uncle Sam in Congress for 20 years, you do not qualify.
Press on.
Filed under Essay
On Perspective: Radio Essay for August 27, 2011
This past week has been one filled with all the anticipation of a school boy awaiting a field trip as I made my way to the scene of the most significant battleground of the Civil War: Gettysburg. In preparation, I even read a chronicle of the Gettysburg Campaign written by Shelby Foote. You might remember him from the Ken Burns series on the Civil War. I had hoped to broadcast this morning from Cemetery Ridge, in sight of the hallowed ground of Pickett’s Charge where General Armistead breached the Union line but fell amid 6500 of his men who lay dead or wounded; or from the summit of Little Round Top where Colonel Joshua Chamberlain turned away five charges of the 15th Alabama Regiment, preserved a Union victory and earned the Medal of Honor.
A close friend of mine reminded me that the day doesn’t know what history will bring. In life, despite the long rumination of strategic thinking, we are frequently handed unique opportunities that must be acted upon in an instant. We react to the vision in our minds eye on instinct and intuition. In Gettysburg that hot and humid week in July 1863, leaders emerged from the crucible of conflict. Some were expected to lead and could not, others seized the moment and served to rally morale and exhort the most noble and courageous performance from their troops. All were expected to make a decision when minutes counted.
In the three day battle, over 50,000 Americans were killed, wounded, captured or missing. There is no period in American history outside of the Civil War that rivals the scale of human carnage. I was reminded that more than 620,000 soldiers died in those four years, nearly 2% of the US population. Today, such a percentage would claim 6 million lives. Gettysburg is a place to which all Americans should make a pilgrimage to begin to appreciate the sacrifice that Americans are willing to make for America.
This essay is not intended to be a lesson in military history. It is intended to remind us of two things as far as American history is concerned. First, all challenges must be placed in proper perspective. Those at Gettysburg were fighting to preserve a way of life and were willing to place their destiny firmly in the hands of their leaders. Secondly, the most notable leaders emerge amid the great and desperate challenges laid before them. They place country before self.
Let’s fast forward a century and a half to now. Given the headlines that define our current events, one might think that our Union was under siege. Bond ratings are downgraded; the stock market is volatile; we are engaged in foreign conflicts on the far side of the world; our Congress appears impotent; we can’t balance our budget; foreign potentates could call our stifling debt; unemployment is high; and our moral compass seems to be spinning.
All of these maladies afflict us, this is true. But it fails the test of perspective. Ours is a country that has proven in our short but splendid history to be capable of weathering tumultuous storms. In the past 150 years we have witnessed repeated financial scandals, political assassinations of multiple Presidents and civic leaders, two World Wars, a Great Depression that still dwarfs our current economic crisis, a continued quest for civil rights that set cities ablaze in the 1960’s and reflected shame upon our national soul, a war in a far away jungle that tore apart generations, a Presidential resignation and a Presidential impeachment. Need I go on?
We must apply the test of perspective to today’s problems. They are neither historic nor intractable. They were created by us and can be solved by us. There is no genie to come out of a bottle to magically snap a finger to resolve our problems. We don’t need one.
We must demand from those in leadership positions just that: leadership. Our country’s heritage is rife with examples of people who, when confronted with unexpected challenges under crushing pressure, rose to the occasion when called to perform and did so at the precise moment of need. That is all we need right now. Our problems of today do not need a Lincoln to solve.
We have figuratively quartered the horses in Washington to lead the country but do they have half the horsepower and courage as those who spilled their blood on the battlefield of Gettysburg to lead us through the muck and mire of our nations’ challenges? We often speak of the courage of our Founders who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to birth a nation. That creation has been buttressed four score and seven years plus seven score more by patriots who held true to the noble cause of freedom and who traded their youth that the Union may be preserved.
The day does not know what history will bring. The time for leadership to emerge in Washington is now. Who knows what real problems are in the offing? We owe it to our ancestors and our posterity to place country above politics and to advance this noble experiment called the United States of America.
Press on.
Filed under Essay
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