By Edwin Cooney
I don’t know what you’ve been told, but
I’ve been told that there could be as many as 20 politicians trying to convince
us that they ought to be elected President of the United States of America in
2016.
Each of them, according to what I’ve
been told, is backed by at least one billionaire. Most of them will be Republicans. There may be as many as three Democrats in
the race, but no one really expects anyone other than Hillary Clinton to be the
Democratic nominee.
It’s expected that the Republican
campaign will be all about which candidate is the true “red” conservative. (I just love the idea that red Republicans
exist. Only a few years ago,
Republicans, especially conservative Republicans, used to insist that they’d
rather be dead than red. Wow, the world really
is changing!)
Ever since I began writing these weekly
musings ten years ago, I’ve been bemoaning the existence of the culture war in
this country. Since the late 1970s,
partisanship has become less about the practical application of principles or
strategies for solving great national and international issues and more about
the moral forces behind the proposed solutions for problem-solving.
Most Republicans will insist that it’s
immoral to force people to purchase health insurance. Next, they will insist that gay and lesbian
marriage is a question of morality.
After that, they will insist that by seeking accommodation with Iran and
not more aggressively opposing Assad in Syria, the Obama administration is guilty
of the immorality of selling out to the enemies of western democracy and
Christianity.
Mrs. Clinton will also suggest that her
principles are primarily matters of morality.
After all, isn’t the increasing disparity between the upper and middle
classes in America a question of morality?
If a gay or lesbian couple can provide children abandoned by straight
couples with a solid and safe life style, doesn’t that in itself justify gay
and lesbian relationships?
As much as I may favor what President
Obama has accomplished in the field of healthcare, I’m willing to hear how
Republicans might improve the healthcare system, but I’m not the least
interested in hearing about their moral outrage over “Obamacare”.
Back in the 1950s, we faced an atomic threat
by what we considered a “godless and materialistic Soviet society.” Many high-powered and well-placed citizens
such as Douglas MacArthur, J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon and Barry Goldwater
insisted that world communism was a single-minded monster that would rule the
world if not militarily vanquished.
Communism, they insisted, was a monolith and a moral outrage. The truth of the matter is that it was
neither. Communism, true communism or
Marxism was never practiced even by the Soviets. However, like Islam today, communism was a
wonderful presidential campaign issue because it was easily labeled a moral
outrage.
Here’s another truth which my friend Steve
in Northern California recently taught me.
Seldom do societies go to war because they understand each other! After all, the victorious North demonstrated
that it didn’t understand the South in the wake of our Civil War. Otherwise, he
points out, we would have avoided the era of Reconstruction.
Meanwhile, there are legitimate issues
on which Republicans and Democrats can seek votes. Each ought to sell us a healthcare plan. Each party ought to assess the environment,
the need to rebuild America’s infrastructure, and the strategies of job
creation. Each ought to examine the
world situation as realistically as possible with the idea of forever “…staying
the hand of mankind’s final war,” as President Kennedy put it in his 1961
inaugural address.
It would be nice if presidential
candidates would keep their moral outrage to themselves.
Politics ought to be about the people’s
agenda and not about the moral incredulity of self-important presidential
candidates!
Any office seeker who considers him or
herself your moral superior is unworthy of you, let alone your vote!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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