Both sides have evidence to support themselves. Clearly the current policy decisions of the Obama Administration is focused on expanding the size and scope of government in our lives and communities. From health care, the economy, and the usurpation of powers usually held by states, communities, and individuals, one can clearly see the road toward serfdom that we are heading down.
However, looking at what has been the focus of his efforts, corporate bailouts, a healthcare bill that is little more than corporate welfare, on-going involvement in the war and empire building, renewing the Orwellian “Patriot Act”, and continuing Bush’s policies on torture, rendition, and unlimited detentions, it can be well said that Obama’s policies fly in the face of traditional leftist politics and are more in line with the policies of the neo-cons of late. Therefore, it appears that neither side is happy with the current state of this nation nor should they be. In other words, they are both right and wrong.
What compounds their errors is the current state of politics. Today we practice the politics of personality. We create or have had created for us personifications of what is right and wrong with our country. We attach our hopes, dreams, fears, and hatreds upon a single individual. Our discourses about politics are about the man or woman, their personal problems, personalities, and perceived goals. They became and now are simply empty vessels in which we pour our hopes and fears about the world around us. Almost literally “empty suits”, our modern leadership is more the function of what they represent to us than who they represent in reality. However, this world of appearances serves only to hide the true, underlying problem that faces us as a nation, the on-going battle between the needs of the individual and the demands of the State.
I think Obama, Bush, and the whole den of thieves in Washington (and Montpelier) are symptoms of a larger problem, Statism. Statism is the belief that government is the source of all answers and wealth. Statist hold that government is a surrogate for society, or is in fact society. They believe that whatever evil is visited upon the people of this nation can be cured by state action and only state action. In their world, people are inherently selfish, lack initiative, and are uninvolved in their community. They believe that nothing substantial or sustained can be done without the initial impulse from government and the continued use of “benign” coercion that is the state.
This very thought process is a cancer on the body politic and a greater danger than any act of any individual regardless of position or power. Whether it be Statism in the form of a Socialist Democracy or Fascist Empire, both are destructive of individual liberty, free markets and peace.
We, the citizens of this State and Nation, must break through the veneer created by the politics of personality. We must shake off the easy answers and immediate sense of gratification that the politics of “gotcha” gives us. We must re-affirm in ourselves and ultimately in our communities the appropriate relationships between citizens, community, society and government. What is that relationship?
The citizen must reassert his authority over his government and be responsible for it, not simply act the role of supplicant and be a victim of it. They must understand that they are part of a community and step up when that community needs them. They must see that society is more than governmental coercion but an interaction of free people coming together spontaneously to accomplish great and small ends. We must all see that society is something outside of government and a greater tool to address the needs of its citizens. It is greater because it is voluntary and by nature not coercive. We must allow ourselves to freely create community, to allow people of similar interests and hopes to pool there resources, explore their interests, and achieve their hopes without government intruding upon that community with regulations and restrictions. Finally, we must realistically see government as a necessary evil, an imperfect tool, which has an important but limited role to play. It’s role can be summarized as providing the framework in which society, community, and the individual work, play, and live.
As long as we continue to focus on the politics of personality, we will continue to accept the false paradigm that to correct our current course requires only the election of the “right person”. The “right person” is our knight in shining armor who will rescue us from the evils of the day. He or she will “change the atmosphere in Washington” and make a “kinder and gentler nation”. They will do the right thing because they are good people. Yet, having lived through eleven presidential elections, I have yet to see this promised land and only more of the status quo. We must reject this form of politics, cut to the true heart of the matter, and begin to debate, educate, discuss and understand the real struggle before us.
Replacing one set of statists for another will not significantly change our current circumstances. However, by creating a political atmosphere which fosters candidates that are willing to fight for the individual; by demanding an accounting from our elected officials for their actions against our liberties, our communities, our future; by not playing the game of personalities; by stripping the venire that obstructs our view and looking at the true state of things we can effect the real, necessary, and obvious change that we all know is wanted, needed, and possible. If we exert all of the energy now on display by that tsunami of electronic discourse toward the real danger before us, it will only be a question of time before real change can occur.
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