Final Lap
Charlie Earl
Roughly ten
days remain in the 2012 election cycle. The campaigning and positioning have
been front and center for more than a year. From the White House to the state
house to the courthouse candidates have been swarming around their districts
and the nation attempting to win your trust and your vote. You certainly can be
excused if you find the cacophony of political slogans confusing and
overwhelming. Some might characterize it as “white noise”….the irritating
pattern you see when there is no signal on your TV set. I suspect the noise
factor is the reason that roughly 20% of the nation pays attention to
presidential debates. The answers and responses are from one to two minutes in
length and offer more insight than a carefully crafted 30-second commercial. In
addition…body language, word choice and temperament can be indicators for
determining a candidate’s true positions.
Then again,
perhaps not. As Rush Limbaugh occasionally says, “Politics is theater for ugly
people.” That may have been a truism before the advent of television, but now
candidates must be passably attractive. So what we are left with in this modern
hi-tech age are shallow beautiful people who have no need or desire to be
openly candid with the voters. It’s no wonder that so many of our current
public servants lack substance yet we continue to return them to office. Our 21st
Century candidates are too pretty and often too shallow. Our hi-tech microwave
culture has transformed us into a nation of impatient people who want quick
answers and instant resolutions for our problems…. No matter how complex or
petty.
The 1858
debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were held in seven
different venues across Illinois. Each confrontation was scheduled for three
hours and covered one topic… slavery… in each and every case. Lincoln was
gangly and homely with a high-pitched voice. Douglas was short and somewhat
rotund. Neither was a pretty boy. Contrast their contests with our present-day
versions. Each candidate gets a maximum of 2 minutes with a 1 minute rebuttal
FOR EACH TOPIC OR ISSUE. It is no wonder that our current politicians lack
depth, and our voters remain ignorant about their positions, philosophies and
principles.
Our slide
into big government socialism began long before the “idiot box” dominated our
family rooms. However television, in my view, has been a major contributor
toward our dwindling attention spans and massive chasms of ignorance. The slow
march toward collectivism has been aided and abetted by our rapid decline in
patience and reason. The march toward tyranny has accelerated to the point that
it has become a gallop, and we have surrendered our tools for stopping it. This
column is a “blog”…. an abbreviated form of discourse that is disguised as being
thoughtful and somewhat comprehensive. It is but a “postem note” of rational
thinking and argument.
Many of you
may disagree with what I’ve presented so far even though if I had used a longer
form with proper attributions and underlying research, you may have accepted my
premise…. or at the least… given it serious consideration. Others of you are
nodding agreeably with my shallowly-given points even when I have no supporting
data aside from intuitive observation. I don’t fault you, nor do I
masochistically beat up on myself. It is what it is. We have become who we are.
If we are to restore our Republic to its Founding Principles, we must recapture
the depth of knowledge and reservoir of reason that our Framers exhibited. As
we enter the final lap of the 2012 race, let us pledge to continue the trek
beyond the “winner’s circle.” If we do not, the victory will be a pyrrhic one.
May God truly bless you as you ponder the decisions you must make in the coming
week.
Charlie Earl
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