Politics is that simple
T.A. Barnhart
Politics is not complex, not for me. The machinations people go through in the political arena only complicate their own lives and minds. The difficult decisions, for me, have little to do with deciding which policy is preferable, which endgame to play, whose candidacy to support. Machiavelli saw all the trees and completely missed the forest; it's really quite simple.
I evaluate politics on simple factor, one variable, one condition. Granted, there are a huge number of issues and factors to consider overall, but really it does all come down to a single criteria, and one that is terrifically easy to measure. An advanced degree in global economics is actually counterproductive, as is a career in the military or the diplomatic field. All that is needed, as the saying goes, are "eyes to see". And a heart that functions.
How are the children doing? That's it. Most of the bullshit that gets argued about in politics is irrelevant to the welfare of children. They don't vote, they don't lobby, the don't contribute, they don't buy arms, they don't build factories, they don't ship jobs to Taiwan or create them in McMinnville, they don't demand improved highways or grain subsidies, they don't negotiate for land reform in Third World nations, they don't wage war over ancient idiocies. Children play and learn and grow. Those are their only jobs, the only things they really do well. They eat their meals, do some household chores, care for siblings, and try to enjoy their lives. A relatively easy gig, when they are allowed to follow that natural course.
How easy for us to evaluate their performance. Are they eating nutritous meals on a regular basis, or are the enjoying a handful of rice every other day? Do they have nice clothing to wear, including shoes that protect their feet, or are they clothed in rags most Americans wouldn't use to wipe the road muck off their car? Do they run and play and have a great time, or are they busy working as slaves on chocolate plantations, or for pennies a day in sweatshops, or learning how to be a whore in some big city? Do they have a nice bed at night in a safe home with loving parents, or do they fight rats for a dry cardboard box to share with their fellow street orphans? Do they get to go to school and learn to read and write, or have they been blown into more pieces than God can recognize by bombs dropped in freedom's name?
Howard Dean was misquoted as saying he hates Republicans. What he hates, and what I hate, are the politicians and powerbrokers of this nation and the world who play games with the lives of innocents, especially children. Politics is a simple thing: Are we using our resources and power to ensure that all children, in all lands, are safe and healthy and happy? Or do we just not give one good damn? The politicians who can make up any excuse -- any excuse whatsoever -- as to why we must tolerate the way millions of children live (if you can call that living), those are the politicians who have failed. They are the politicians who must go.
It is as simple as that.
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Jun 16, '05
Please note sarcastic tone...
So, I read the title and the last line but, the rest seemed kinda lengthy to be simple. Part of a simple explanation is perhaps a quirky one liner. Read some Mark Twain quote perhaps.
Out. Simple as that.
Jun 16, '05
Just think of the children; I like that and I agree with you entirely. Unfortunately in today’s political climate, all it will get you is the label of bleeding-heart liberal. I can just hear Rush Limbaugh tearing you a new one on his show as we speak (do the Limbaugh voice in your head):
“I’ve gotta tell you folks, this simplified liberal ideology sounds like something you would hear at a Tupperware party. Just think of the children. You know, if the world were ran by liberals, you’d have toddlers running whole countries.”
…or something like that. Keep in mind that Limbaugh is a guy that many on the right believe speaks for them.
We are talking about an administration that conducted a war based on some think-tank ideology*, which is a complete failure, and this war is an example of a plan where the same officials consider themselves smart. Everything else is just an example of an elite government stripping off all social programs and handing the keys to our country over to corporations.
Look at Republican’s approach to a social program: No Child Left Behind. This is a policy that considers wealthy children to be the only child that won’t be left behind. The core value of this administration is not love or concern for children or the poor, it’s a concern for a wealthy constituency. I think that is why, when you look what they are doing with our country you can see that they are removed from the impact of any programs they undertake. When you have a golden parachute, you will always land on your feet.
For some reason, the wealthy in our country now live in a climate where they don’t want to part with money to help others (with social programs), and largely want to exist in a state of being that is removed from the poverty in their own country as well as the rest of the world. How do you fight that? How do you fight a climate of apathy and greed?
The only thing I can come up with is to cut the legs out from under the current political climate by supporting issues that concern the greatest number of people in our country. The best example is the healthcare crisis, which truly cuts through party lines and screams that something has to be done. If president Bush would have had the courage to go after healthcare the same way he wanted to go after Social Security, he would probably be remembered as a great man (by a majority of people, but even I would have to give him one nod). I’m not kidding. Despite all of his screw ups, if he would have meaningfully overhauled healthcare he would done something so overwhelming that everyone would notice.
Being a great man is not the concern of Bush or anyone in this administration, it’s protecting their constituency.
*Project for a New American Century
Jun 16, '05
You mean there will be children left behind? And fetusus too?
Can we stop worrying about the children and worry about right now, in this moment. How about a clean vote? If we can't get that, calling this a democracy is just a joke, and the joke's on us. Now THAT is simple.
How to stay focused on that while all the other issues are flying around is difficult, but in the end, it is all that matters. Even Conyers being stuffed in the basement with his Downing Street Memo hearing is insignificant, even if we impeach Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice, in three years, how will we know who was really elected? Frist is the Christian of choice and the propaganda report indicates the Christians delivered Ohio.
Jun 16, '05
Gregor, you are right. Progressives seem to have separate issues and it dilutes. We must come together around an umbrella idea at some point. But till we have an honest verifiable voting system we will have nothing. As for the welfare of children I agree with Barnhart. But at this point we don't live in a country that values children. Oh, we value our own, but not others'. We value things. We are still venting over where we have gotten and that's good, but at what point do we begin to agree on anything? When that happens we may have the power to move our society forward.
Jun 16, '05
"Can we stop worrying about the children and worry about right now, in this moment. How about a clean vote? If we can't get that, calling this a democracy is just a joke, and the joke's on us. Now THAT is simple."
I agree entirely, but how do I go to Florida or Ohio to instruct them on how to protect the vote? If they didn’t have enough influence during the two most important elections in the history of America, how am I supposed to fix that? I will get behind any idea that makes voting in our country a standard we can all agree with, but this seems like it should be the easiest thing to protect.
I don’t see any clear issues over elections in this country. Ask people to make elections fair and most of them will tell you they already are. Try to expose election fraud in this country and you are branded a wing nut. Greg Palast and John Conyers have both been outspoken, with evidence, about election fraud, and NOBODY paid attention.
The issues I can see, that can’t be ignored, start with a grassroots involvement on the issues you can really push, and none of them is more important than healthcare. Can the healthcare crisis be subverted by propaganda? I don’t know, but it’s the least likely subject to be ignored. Voter fraud is forgotten…and don’t get me wrong, in the end your objective is absolutely correct, and as time goes on, it will stand true; it just seems unattainable at this time.
Jun 16, '05
"Can we stop worrying about the children and worry about right now, in this moment”
Wow. Sounds like children don’t have much of a chance with we progressives either. Maybe I took that wrong, but it sounds a little harsh. I would argue that the state of our elections is of little concern to the parent of a child who is living under a bridge – right now, in this moment. I understand the point is the importance of fair elections, but I don’t see that as an issue to rally the masses around.
"How to stay focused on that while all the other issues are flying around is difficult, but in the end, it is all that matters.”
If we are searching for a way to unite our party and draw in moderates and the ever-growing general populace that is increasingly disillusioned with the current state of affairs, it’s important not to become disenfranchised from their concerns. The state of children in this country is rapidly disintegrating. Right or wrong, the average Joe does not see election fraud as an issue that affects his daily life. The welfare of his kids is. Folks will rally and send busloads of kids and angry, screaming parents to Salem (much to Karen Minnis’ consternation) to protest inadequate school funding, but I doubt you could garner that much support to protest election fraud.
Please don’t forget that a great many people are struggling just to get by from day to day. Generally, people don’t read the paper or weblogs or pay attention to the news when they are hungry or cold or their kids are sick. They can’t take the time to educate themselves or participate in the political process when they are looking for work or waiting in line at the free clinic or the DHS office.
The welfare of our children is a just and moral and – unassailable – cause that has pointedly not been addressed by this administration – unless that child happens to be a fetus. Isn’t there a quote that says something about judging a society by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens?
P.S. Did anyone see "30 Days on Minimum Wage" last night on FX? You should have if you're at all interested in understanding what a whole lot of really disheartened and disenfranchised people do every single day of their lives - with little or no hope of reprieve. Give these people something to dream about again, to hope for, and you'd have a lot of really grateful and motivated support.
I love BlueOregon, but I think a lot of people forget about all those out there who aren't, or can't be, politically active or involved. Those who don't post on the blogs, or even have access to the internet or a computer or maybe even electricity. We have been abandoned by the so-called "compassionate conservatives" and have been run over by ineffecient and corrupt social service systems. There is very little place for us to turn for help. Progressives should tap into this and bridge the class stratification that threatens this country.
Hope you don't mind the point of view of someone on the outside looking in.
Jun 16, '05
I agree with Mountain Girl I love BlueOregon, but I think a lot of people forget about all those out there who aren't, or can't be, politically active or involved. Those who don't post on the blogs, or even have access to the internet or a computer or maybe even electricity. We have been abandoned by the so-called "compassionate conservatives" and have been run over by ineffecient and corrupt social service systems. There is very little place for us to turn for help. Progressives should tap into this and bridge the class stratification that threatens this country.
Have you ever considered the possibility that what programs are in place may not be implemented well? What is a small town person to do if the local office supposed to help them (welfare, employment, foodstamps, etc.) is full of incompetent or small minded people who aren't up to the job? For instance, the Imatch system and the State Employment website are accessible from anywhere Internet is available, incl. libraries and community colleges. But does everyone who is out of work know that? While some debate theories, true leaders try to solve problems. As much as voter verifiable paper trail is important to the next election, it won't feed the person whose unemployment benefits have run out, or give spare time to the person working multiple jobs.
This is why I like the Ed Schultz show--he understands those things. He interviews many on leading topics of the day and takes phone calls, but he also interviews the high school kid who managed to go into the record books with 2 holes in one in one day. There IS more to life than politics, and forgetting that doesn't win elections!
The point is that theory is fine, but that doesn't win elections. Making the connection with ordinary voters is what wins elections. People who have secure jobs and no problem feeding their family and paying their bills should count their blessings and remember the old slogan "walk a mile in my shoes". Instead of dissertations on what progressives believe, tell us what should be done to solve today's problems. For parents of teenagers, it may be Gov. Kulongoski's remarks today on the need to debate the draft. For parents of preschoolers it may be day care or nutrition or what the schools will look like when their kids are 5 or 10. For someone with an ill member of the family, it might be health care.
In an article on job hunting, someone wrote that the odds are "if you can show the employer a way to make money, save money, or save time, they may find a way to hire you even if there is no opening". The same is true with politics. People have been known to vote for the candidate who helped get that 4 way stop sign at the intersection where one auto accident landed in someone's yard. Or vote for the guy down the street, their kid's Sunday School teacher, the young man someone they know watched grow up, the guy with the good idea, the person who once helped them with something.
When thinking about the usefulness of labels, consider the cousins Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt. Between them they talked about the Square Deal and the New Deal, Pure Food and Drug Laws, regulation of banks, ways to curb the power of corporations and ways to put people to work. But what label fits them? Progressive, maybe, but does a label matter?
Maybe results and connection to the general public matter more?
1:12 p.m.
Jun 17, '05
to glenlivid especially:
"children" is not an issue. election reform is an issue. energy alternatives to oil is an issue. the draft is an issue. farms subsidies is an issue.
children are people, the most vulnerable and the most exploited and abused people on earth. my point was to say that when considering issue alternatives and outcomes, i look at the impact on children. election reform will help children, of course, but the two are not equivalent. if a politician or an organization demonstrates it does not care about children, that it is willing to put other considerations before the welfare of children, then they are irrecoverably corrupt and must go.
and please god, i never want to hear about the welfare of children being helped in the long term (trickle-down childcare). we can help them now, and we must.
Jun 18, '05