By Edwin Cooney
At the outset of every political campaign, candidates have a choice between two courses or paths as they try and attract voters. Path one is to dare voters to accept the future you hope to create on the campaign trail. Path two is to scare the hell out of the voter, because people are far more likely to duck from the future than they are to embrace it! Because the future is only predictable rather than known, most people have a tendency to think of the worst of the past and apply it as a likely pattern for the future!
It's no wonder that the GOP this week doubled down on their traditional use of fear as a political tool! Republicans, since the early 1960s, have insisted that the likelihood of advancing socialism is a greater threat to our future than any disease. It's rather easy as well as intimidating to conjure in one's mind the idea of hordes of black and brown foreigners invading innocent neighborhoods, touting violence and carrying sheaths of flame, accompanied by rape, mayhem and ultimately murder for the sake of the advance of socialism and/or some foreign idea of human equality.
Between 1979 and 2013, I lived in Northern California and witnessed GOP gubernatorial campaigns that eventually came down to one issue. No matter how questionable either the state of the California economy or what policy matters were at issue, GOP gubernatorial candidates would invariably raise capital punishment as the key factor that would insure the safety and security of Californians. From there, they'd go on to win the 1982, 1986 and 1990 gubernatorial elections.
Of course, the safety and security of the public is a reasonable issue in every campaign, whether the election is a state or national affair. However, until this year, the question of the public's safety has generally been a question of military or law enforcement preparedness!
Believing as they do that private enterprise is the only legitimate way to tackle all public needs, the GOP naturally opposes all government actions that result in stultifying the steady progress of that vital source of our prosperity in the wake of any threat or promise. Unfortunately for all of us living in 2020 America, millions of Americans have been indoctrinated to despise their government, (their federal government in particular) even as they tearfully salute Old Glory and sing "God Bless America." What too many millions of Americans have lately refused to acknowledge is that a government strong enough to insure the "common welfare" of the people is required to ultimately be controllable by and for a free people. Effective government doesn't have to be a mischievous government in order to insure our safety, our economic well-being or our liberty! No one's wrong to insist that we be forever vigilant and even skeptical regarding government activities, but such skepticism isn't necessarily hostile to government. As I see it, such skepticism is generally constructive. After all, government, too, must be regulated if it's to be both responsive and responsible!
As for "We the People," in almost everything we do, we require some regulation of our activities for our own ultimate well-being! To deny that, as far as I'm concerned, is to deny the natural state of nature. Some advocate religious faith, others advocate social contracts such as economic and social cooperatives, while others suggest a combination of the above.
The question before the American voter in the coming weeks will ultimately be which terror, biological or ideological, must we overcome in order to continue to be a creative, open, free and prosperous people!
On Friday, October 4th, 1957, the Soviet Union became the first "world power" to launch a satellite into space. Americans of that day soon awakened to use the wonders of science, the capacity of our educational system and the instruments that government can so naturally provide, thereby saving us from our own fear and skepticism. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the people used this combination of government and enterprise to protect themselves from domination by the Soviet Bear!
Thus to the question of whether Covid-19 or the uncertainties of "Black Lives Matter" should be the key issue in this presidential campaign, the real ultimate question is whether death or genuine equality is America's greatest enemy?
The president insists that he's already adequately protected us from Covid-19. And now he's ready to protect us from social equality. Joe Biden insists that government's first obligation is that of protecting the welfare of the people, and that hasn't even begun to happen under President Trump. As for the steady progress of social opportunity and equality, only its tactics must be modified! Its realization will strengthen us all!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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