The Best of the Worst

Names like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, etc., etc. suggest a notion of bold leadership, the best of the best that this country has to offer and a vector of hope for a better future, even through some of the most difficult times in our history. But in an era of smear campaigns, SuperPACs driving those campaigns and adding misleading slogans and myths to the mix, new and unlimited campaign contributions over ever-increasing categories of donors, 24/7 news organizations dealing with no more than 3 hours/day of real news (needing to fill the other hours driven by ad sales not truth) and an Internet that uncovers dark secrets and foments lies and distortion with ease, the best of the best are increasingly wary of stepping into the political fray.

Today’s political processes? Solid brains with active problem-solving skills, an ability to see paths for bi-partisan compromise, are rapidly giving way to proselytizing extremists – skilled at repeating broad and usually meaningless but catchy-slogans with virtually no linkage to real solutions or genuine truths – who are willing to embrace the causes of the big donors with agendas on their mind. Money, money, money! Tell social conservatives whatever they want, promise a no-compromise political blockage to the legislative system, champion gerrymandering, and smile with palm-outstretched from donors looking to keep that playing field completely tilted in favor of those with donation cash to spread around. Democrats, bewitched and bewildered with less access to SuperPAC cash, are running around being little more than defensive and reactive. They don’t have a lot of answers or vision anymore.

Like him or not, President Obama has been a pin cushion for more than a few barbs, and perhaps a few sharp knives, that focus on his individual “shortcomings” (real and fabricated, racist and untrue). He wasn’t born in the United States, say the Birthers, or is depicted in the severest racist incarnation (a monkey-like visage, used in segregated times to depict ‘Negroes’ as inferior to whites – examples above). And worse.

Or unlike any other time in post-19^th century America – where every single piece of seminal social legislation (income taxes, voting rights, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) has been submitted time and again to Congress to fix flaws that surfaced when the programs were launched – Obama’s seminal legislation (the Affordable Care Act) cannot get the slightest hearing before any House Committee for a fix (it’s always about repeal… 54 House votes for repeal, zero for repair). My way – er… my donors’ way – or the highway.

“‘If you were to call it an Obama generation, there was a window,’ said John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University. ‘That opportunity has been lost.’ He said the youth who came of voting age around the time of the 2008 election have since lost interest in electoral politics, and pointed to a survey he conducted last year among 18- to 29-year-olds. Although 70 percent said they considered community service an honorable endeavor, only 35 percent said the same about running for office.” New York Times, April 13^th.

And the numbers are dropping. There is this growing perception that embracing a serious political career is about finding the donors who will contribute and saying whatever you need to get those campaign contributions. Leadership and vision have left the building. Our political choices are becoming just picking from the least-objectionable “least-qualified” candidates, those willing to do anything for political power without regards to genuine public service. The best of the best are increasingly unwilling to step into the vileness that now defines electioneering in the United States.

I’m Peter Dekom, and while we are not getting the political system we want, perhaps we are getting the political system we deserve.