By J.B. Williams
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Sooner or later, the American people will have to face the very real fact that the partisan mess in Washington DC is nothing more than a reflection of the partisan mess across this nation. The divisions that paralyze Washington DC are now just a partisan tool for Washington hacks. But they were given birth and are perpetuated on Main Street USA.
The divisions are real in our own lives and in our own neighborhoods, and that's why they are very real in Washington DC. We no longer have one single agenda for America. We have two distinct opposing agendas now. That must change...
Hours before Fred Thompson, who is running third in most Republican presidential polls without officially running yet, gave his trial speech to the nation (on C-SPAN only) from a Lincoln Club dinner, I wrote 'What is Fred Waiting For?' in which I ventured a guess as to what Thompson was waiting for, "Everything I know about Fred, says that he is not likely to announce a candidacy unless and until he is able to see himself winning with a mandate..."
Later that evening, Thompson himself put it this way... "The level of bipartisanship needed for real progress can only be achieved when politicians perceive that the American people are demanding it. That's why leaders of reform and hopefully our next President will have a mandate to go directly to the American people with truth and clarity."
Thompson went on to test his notion in this public rehearsal speech to the people, "My friends we have entered a new era. We are going to be tested in many ways, possibly under attack and for a long time. It's time to take stock and be honest with ourselves. We're going to have to do a lot of things better. Here's what we need to do and here's why. I know that, now that you're being called upon, you will do whatever is necessary for the sake of our country and for future generations. You always have."
He concluded the thought and his speech by stating, "When the American people respond to that, as I know they will, you will have your bipartisanship."
As I speculated in my column, Thompson is looking for signs of such a mandate, such a response from the people. Running will do no good without winning and winning will be ineffective without a mandate for real change from the people. Thompson appears to be the only candidate who understands this... The next president will need coat-tails and a clear mandate to depart from the status quo, period.
Thompson is hinting at something I have often written about myself. Bi-partisanship in Washington DC is just a silly pipe dream so long as there remains no bi-partisanship at home on Main Street USA. Yet it's clear, that pure partisanship trumps everything on Main Street today, even national sovereignty and security. People would rather die divided than unite even for the sake of saving themselves or the next generation.
Career political hacks look at this condition and see an opportunity to exploit those divisions for political gain. But someone like Thompson, whose life is better off outside of politics, looks at this condition and sees no opportunity to make the kinds of real change Americans claim to want, but seldom agree to make.
The first step of any good recovery program is to first admit we have a problem... Few Americans seem ready for this step yet and that concerns Thompson, as it should concern anyone seeking the highest office in this land today.
Compromise is a campaign buzz-word, like bi-partisanship, neither of which actually exist in Washington DC today and that's because neither exists in America. Those who talk about compromise really mean that they want to drag the opposition over to their side of the debate, by force if necessary. In the real world, nobody in America is seeking compromise on the toughest issues of the day.
Think not? Ask the pro-choice voter what he/she is willing to give up in a search for common ground with the pro-life voter? Ask the Gay Rights lobby how they intend to reconcile their agenda with that of the Traditional Family Values lobby? Ask the atheists seeking to make all of America a God Free Zone, how they plan on compromising with the 90+ percent of Americans who still hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain specific unalienable rights?
Ask those seeking access to the rightful earnings of others by taking from "the rich" (the top 50% of income earners) and arbitrarily redistributing wealth to "the poor" (the bottom 50% of income earners), for "the greater common good", how they intend to find a "bi-partisan" compromise with those they are stealing from?
Ask the anti-war, anti-intelligence, anti-military crowd how they plan to meet in the middle with the pro-security crowd? Ask the pro-illegal immigration lobby seeking full civil and civic rights for illegal aliens how they will work with those who believe in American sovereignty and legally controlled immigration to secure our borders? And yes, the answer would be the same if all of these questions were asked in reverse...
Not one of these groups, pro or con, has any interest at all in finding compromise. They have only an interest in pursuing their own agenda. Career politicians cash-in on these divisions by simply pandering to one side or the other.
So long as there is no interest in real bi-partisan compromise at home, there can be none in Washington DC.
How grand it is to live at a time when life is so peaceful and prosperous that we can afford to spend all of our time divided over trivial nonsense. How sweet it is to live in a nation so profoundly successful that we need not work together to prevent the same horrors that plague the rest of the world from plaguing America. We are indeed special, privileged and spoiled rotten!
We (mostly the politicians and pure partisans) pretend that we are engaged in a war between left and right. But on closer inspection, we are engaged in the same war at home as abroad, the same war we have been engaged in since the beginning of time, the war between right and wrong.
There is such a thing as real right and wrong and each has its own natural inescapable consequences. Some have chosen to forget or temporarily ignore this reality, for the false sense of tolerance and politically correct social acceptance. But America will one day unite, not on the basis of left or right, but right or wrong.
Real reform is not a matter of right versus left, other than to the degree that one side represents an agenda based largely upon right, while the other represents an agenda based largely upon wrong. It's silly to think that either side is 100% right or wrong. But one is certainly more right than wrong and it isn't tough to figure out which one today.
Those parts of the world that have already given secular socialism a go and have experienced its natural consequences first hand are now moving to the hard political right in an effort to save their nations from complete ruin, France being only the latest example.
PARIS -- Nicolas Sarkozy, an immigrant's son promising to revitalize France, won a comfortable victory Sunday in a presidential election seen as a mandate for his bold plans to enact free-market reforms, reassert influence abroad and strengthen ties to the United States.
"They [the French voters] have chosen to break with the ideas, the habits and the behaviors of the past. I want to rehabilitate work, authority, morality, respect, merit. I want to restore the honor of the nation and the national identity. I want to return to the French the pride of being French." Said Sarkozy (referring to those failed French ideas and behaviors of the past that American liberals call "progressive" today)
But meanwhile back in America, so long as we don't agree on right and wrong, we can never agree on right versus left and bi-partisan compromise is a figment of political imaginations, a condition not existent in this nation at present.
Real reform must start with universal recognition of real right and wrong. Until then, bi-partisanship is not possible.
Every American holds the key... If it is to be, it must begin with me.
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