LOOKING STRAIGHT AHEAD!

By Edwin Cooney

Unfortunately for President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., as 2022 dawns, he's in a tough spot, although he has no one to blame for that but himself, especially considering everything Donald John Trump did to keep him out of the White House and away from those “crushing” presidential burdens which many people believe a gentleman of his age ought to be avoiding. Add to that, there's the deliberately adversarial relationship between executives and legislatures that are a traditional and even cherished institution in a republic such as ours. This adversarial institution has its legitimate aspect of emphasizing different ways of doing everything from budget management to domestic and foreign policy application. Even more, this adversarial way of doing things sells newspapers, inflames potential political candidates, encourages both famous and infamous image makers, encourages good and bad legislation, and ensures large pharmaceutical companies of healthy annual profits. Worst of all, it was founded by our "founding fathers," with insufficiently strong reservations by George Washington when he warned against it in his farewell letter. Our dilemma is that we've become too political.   

By its very nature, politics is about planned intrigue against an existing established order. Politics in small doses is not only healthy, it's essential.

However, like a doctor's most powerful drugs, in this our fourth century, it has become dangerous to the point of becoming nearly fatal to the body politic.

The fact of the matter is that as we approach the second full year of the Biden/Harris Administration, both political parties have had things their way and neither party is either grateful to the American voter or appreciative, and thus respectful, to the options and ministrations of the formerly "loyal opposition."

By both temperament and nature, an unfettered public legally and even morally (depending on what force governs one’s morals) can independently and judiciously adjust that which traditionally has regulated what does or does not constitute political fairness or morality when it comes to the public's well-being.

What kind of a society are we building when we pass state laws not only empowering but encouraging citizens to arrest one another? If it's moral to arrest a neighbor for violation of pro-life laws, how is it immoral for a neighbor to arrest another neighbor for violating a newly passed law designed to protect the environment and, ultimately, the climate? Are election results to be judged as moral versus immoral reflections of a free people's judgment?

Another interesting factor from the 2020 election is the number of Americans who celebrated elections which resulted in GOP congressional majorities but who also rejected the same election day result that favored Joe Biden's successful result.

Back around 2011, I was able to counter the fears of two fine gentlemen who were sure the country was falling apart by demonstrating that much of what was then happening had happened before.

With laws being passed by state legislatures limiting people's voting rights and encouraging and widening the policing power, I'm fearful that our sense of individual moral superiority over opposition individuals and groups of people is invariably self-destructive.

As of this January 3rd, just three days  short of the anniversary of last January 6th, we appear to be frozen in a new era of malaise that has nothing at all to do with former President Jimmy Carter. Carter, of course, never used the word “malaise” to describe the anxious situation we were in during July and August of 1979. Malaise was the phrase President Carter's opponents used with which to tar his administration and even his person on the eve of the 1980 presidential election.

Given the current state of malaise, I hereby offer a new paradigm.

As urgent or desirous or fundamental as your most urgent cause may be, give some consideration to the way the enforcement of your cause could  limit the liberty of others.

Finally, remember that three months is a long time in politics. There are forces out there, some of which are lying in the bushes, that can alternate a whole set of life-altering circumstances. Even in view of his December 2019 impeachment by the House, everyone expected President Trump to be easily re-elected in 2020, but then along came Covid-19. Should Vladimir Putin invade Ukraine or should President Biden suddenly pass significant pieces of "Build Back Better" legislation or should supply problems suddenly be resolved, Old Joe could suddenly be looking pretty spry!

Still, we have an ongoing problem. We've all become so jealous of our own priorities that the values of others mean very, very little. We may officially be the "United States" of America, but it seems that everyday we are less and less united.

It's time we begin loving someone else's freedom at least as much as we do our own.

Tell you what — you go first and let me know how easy it is and just maybe, I'll follow you!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY