Waxing Poetically: Addressing Culture with a Twist of Poetry

Last night, former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura told Larry King that our current brand of politics is something he’ll never endorse. Ventura contends that we have a government that is caught up in re-paying favors and spending all the money they can to get elected. He also stated he would consider a run for the Senate in July.

Watch Video:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/05/21/lkl.jesse.ventura.cnn/

Ventura may have something of a point in the fact that he has never been a career politician, has never asked for favors and has never claimed allegiance to any party. I also, like that he’s an ex wrestler, so he knows tough guy, blowhard bravado when he hears it.

I now leave you with a quotation from George Washington from his 1796 farewell address and an excerpt from a previous blog I wrote last year entitled “Party Crashing: Why Neither Party Seems To Be Working Out Too Well For Us”

Washington states as follows:

All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They [political parties] serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

Link: http://www.laughtergenealogy.com/bin/history/politics.html

Excerpt:

In lay terms, if a government’s intentions and allegiances are to a party and not the republic for which it stands, that government becomes devoid of character and principle. When a party serves to out-govern its opposition rather than serve its people by finding common ground, that party becomes unjust.

I fear this has happened to our country. Our leaders have lost site of their purpose. From the extreme perspectives, Conservatives think Liberals are the scourge of societal well being who want to run recklessly through the world being gay and raising taxes while Liberals in turn argue that the current administration has ignored the voice of its people and call President Bush evil. These extremes may exist where some of us live but what if a person is a Christian Democrat? What if he or she is personally pro-life but does not feel abortion can be abolished without dealing with the aftermath of unplanned pregnancy? What are gay Republicans to do? Where do they fit in the political spectrum?

Personally, I feel it’s time we the people start voting just as people. People should never let a party, even if they do agree with its stance, be their sole reason for voting. To paraphrase a certain Dr. King, whether red state or blue state our United States must not vote simply by the color of a party but rather by the content of the character of each candidate within those parties. It’s ironic that in a country in which we refer to our parties as either “right” or “left” wings, we should fail to realize that in order to fly the plane that is the United States of America, we need both wings!

Am I the only one who likes this Ventura guy? Leave comments and stay waxing poetically as always!

To read the original article from which the above excerpts are taken go to

http://www.talentdatabase.com/channels/20/profiles/276901/portfolios/276601/portfolio_items/6522301

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