By Edwin Cooney
AMERICA'S NATIONAL STRUCTURE — Few countries that humankind has ever created are even as equally designed as the United States of America! Our federal system of social and political checks and balances is as sound as human genius is likely capable of both creating and maintaining.
OUR NATIONAL VULNERABILITY — Our national weakness is most readily apparent in our political system. Every human being who would be "free" must possess the capacity to regulate his or her behavior. This individual need can be found in everything we do whether it's business or recreational in its function. Sports and games have umpires and referees. Artists have associations and critics. Medical personnel have the Hippocratic Oath to evaluate their overall practice. You and I have our families and schools, along with our spiritual institutions and guidelines. Meanwhile the behavior of public officials at all levels of government is largely guided by the American voter through the imperfect political process and the set of values and mores of the time. The instruments that most reflect the national mood are our political parties. These political instruments, while generally made up of genuine outlooks and agendas, are most powerfully fueled by the nature of their business. Their ultimate business is competition for the hearts and minds of free men and women. This competition is ultimately personal in nature and could (unless free men and women master its effect) poison our political, social, and spiritual destiny.
SINS AND VIRTUES — As I've pointed out, because we're so powerfully significant in the international body politic, many times both our sins and our virtues have been monumental in their force and by their nature.
These days, whenever we preach freedom and practice any form of discrimination, we stir up a hornet's nest of criticism and indignation. Even as we seek to offer equity, we're often very moody in our outlook especially toward large groups of political and social advocacy.
As a member of my college's political affairs club back in the fall of 1971, I had the honor of introducing Lyndon Johnson’s former Press Secretary George Reedy who was speaking on campus. His book was entitled "The Twilight of the Presidency." Mr. Reedy reminded us that up until Franklin Roosevelt took to the airwaves via his "Fireside Chats," few citizens had any sense of the personal assets or liabilities of the man sitting in the White House. Hence, in the wake of FDR's combination of eloquence, political mastery, and physical disability, Harry Truman's pugnacity and daring, Ike's grandfatherly wisdom and well-meaning agenda, JFK's refreshing and youthful guidance and appeal, and LBJ's determined imperial force and expectations, Americans came to take national leadership in a more personal way than they had since George Washington took the presidential oath in 1789.
Accordingly, our impressions of national leaders have become toxic rather than wise or just. Rather than arguing the merits of issues, we argue the demerits of people.Too few office seekers appear to realize that their often criminalization of their political opponents endangers their own credibility once they are elected to public office.
As for the public, we seldom insist that our national leadership draw any distinctions when it comes to the application of public policy. Careful deliberation of public matters has been cheapened by ideological hopes, fears, and expectations of ultimate victory and political dominance. Political dominance is the pathway to both absolute and dictatorial socialism and oligarchy.
Chaotic, confusing and discomforting as they are, the merits as well as the demerits of public issues will ultimately save us from the sheer terror of absolutism!
The effect of public policy is ultimately personal. However, the election of public officials and the debate of public issues are too important to be strictly personal.
As to the fate of the Trumps or even the Clintons, remember that they are mere mortals subject to the history which will be written and evaluated largely by those yet to be born!
As human beings, our most common characteristic is our imperfection. Thus, our most ongoing task is that of completing our forbear's task of forming a “MORE PERFECT UNION."
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
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