Why We Can't (or Won't) Govern

[homersapien 9,736]

Excellent essay.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/robert-samuelson-scoring-points-in-washington-has-trumped-governing/2014/11/16/886e2cd4-6c1f-11e4-a31c-77759fc1eacc_story.html

"......Our political culture increasingly values symbolism over substance. That’s what I mean by Americans favoring “self-serving fictions.” Political behavior is shaped by beliefs that are false and goals so impractical as to be unobtainable. But the symbolism has consequences because it inspires feel-good agendas that elected leaders are expected to achieve. When they predictably fail, popular disillusion deepens. The dynamic works on both left and right. We cannot govern, it seems, because ideological fervor crowds out pragmatic realism....."

[TheBlueVue 177]

"We cannot govern, it seems, because ideological fervor crowds out pragmatic realism....."

The problem with this assessment is the prevailing consensus on pragmatic realism has been arrived at behind political winds that have been drifting further and further to the left, with only a brief respite or two, since the 1960s. Sadly, its always to the left and they never substantially drift back to the right. So, when someone who honestly reveres conservative values is willing to stand up and let those values be known, he is quickly characterized by the left and its media machine as a right wing radical extremist or a jhadist. As a result, we now have 2 parties in Washington that look like mirror images of each other. There is no counter balance to this insanity.

As long as the left continues to rely on that kind of invective, we'll never be able to govern and the country will continue to drown in debt and the traditional values that made the country great will continue to be eroded into oblivion. It is what it is.

Edited December 17, 2014 by TheBlueVue

[homersapien 9,736]

"We cannot govern, it seems, because ideological fervor crowds out pragmatic realism....."

The problem with this assessment is the prevailing consensus on pragmatic realism has been arrived at behind political winds that have been drifting further and further to the left, with only a brief respite or two, since the 1960s. Sadly, its always to the left and they never substantially drift back to the right. So, when someone who honestly reveres conservative values is willing to stand up and let those values be known, he is quickly characterized by the left and its media machine as a right wing radical extremist or a jhadist. As a result, we now have 2 parties in Washington that look like mirror images of each other. There is no counter balance to this insanity.

As long as the left continues to rely on that kind of invective, we'll never be able to govern and the country will continue to drown in debt and the traditional values that made the country great will continue to be eroded into oblivion. It is what it is.

Let's call this "Exhibit A".