Back to Gaffer's Variety.
Gaffer Variety:
More Notes For Hillary 006:
By Willie Gaffer:
September 19, 2005:
In my last essay I said I wanted to look at the issues and the democratic philosophy. I must first discuss philosophy. Right now, neither party is capable of dealing coherently with issues because of their philosophy or lack thereof. We cannot deal with issues except in terms of philosophy. The republican philosophy is so simple minded that it does not allow for dealing with issues at all. Vestigial mythology and power mongering are not a philosophy. A philosophy of politics must be secular and democratic lest it polarize the population.
The democrats, on the other hand, do not even have a clear philosophy. As a result, you can be whipsawed by events and by designing adversaries. Witness Gore and Kerry in the past two elections. So, you must establish a simple democratic philosophy that Mr. and Mrs. Citizen can understand and subscribe to. As any philosophy should, the democratic philosophy must come out of some simple premises of human decency coupled with an unassailable personal ethic.
The personal ethic is key to this and I have repeated these points many times in my essays. I recently outlined them in my book, "Will-Yam in the Land of Giants." It is really nothing more than the puritan ethic with the magical creature removed. It begins with the premise that I am my brothers keeper. We can substitute neighbor for brother and make this more inclusive. It really has to do with community and enlightened self interest. We support and contribute to our community so that it remains viable and gives a safe environment for our home and work. Without community we have a state of anarchy. Currently, many of our communities are seeing the consequences of forsaking community. Indeed, anarchy rules the streets.
So with my brothers and neighbors in mind, here is my idea
of what the democrats personal ethic should be.
We do not lie.
We do not cheat.
We do not steal.
We do not hurt other people.
In short we hew to the puritan ethic in spades. We do it, not
just when it is convenient, but all of the time and especially
when we are under duress. In addition we teach ethics at every
opportunity and we actively condemn unethical behavior, especially
in government and the business community.
The democratic philosophy must also be simple and straightforward
such that the citizen can pick up on it and embrace it. The elements
are:
No one should be hungry.
No one should be afraid.
No one should be cold.
No one should have to choose between medicine and food.
No child should ever be made to feel ashamed of himself.
Ever child should have a clear opportunity to reach for excellence.
Everyone must also have an opportunity for meaningful employment.
No one except criminals should fear their government.
Now, a strong society can make this philosophy a reality for all citizens. To make it a reality requires that big business be brought to heel. In addition, government must be brought under control. It should be obvious, we are not going to be strong so long as we have incompetents, crooks, and thieves ruling our major corporations and government bureaus. The cost is too high in terms of outright theft and in terms of waste. Graft and pork barrel must be stopped if we are ever to be great again. That must be made clear to everyone and must become a part of the long term plan for America.
Planning is imperative. Once you have a philosophy, you can have a long term plan for America. This will be a first. America has never had even a short term plan. We have always be reactive rather than proactive. We can no longer afford that. The pace of current events will bury us unless we have a plan that allows us to act in a timely manner. You need only look at the energy crisis to understand that. We knew this was coming way back in the Carter administration but we made no plan and sought no long term solution. We took short term short cuts. We are now suffering the consequences of that stupid shortsightedness.
Clearly you must have a plan. With a plan, the issues can be ordered and resolved with respect to the philosophy and the plan can be fleshed out. The plan and solutions must come out of the philosophy or we will have chaos. That is what we have now, because there is no overall philosophy. Without that, there can be no reliable plan. With no plan, your solutions will not dovetail. They will interfere, one with the other. For sure, a plan begins with a goal. I believe our goal must be the liberation of all mankind. Anything less is not acceptable for a truly ethical society. Of course, to reach that goal we must first clean up our own act. That means getting honest government.
With honesty in government you can lay out the framework of your long term plan. That must be designed to make America the leader in bringing peace and safety to the world. To do that, we must first defeat terrorism. From the standpoint of issues, dealing with terrorism must be the number one priority of your administration. Rather that shooting and invading at random with no facts, you must have a carefully designed plan for dealing with this threat. That plan must be designed by top military and guerrilla strategists and thinkers. It must consider the threat from all quarters and provide a coherent procedure for neutralizing the threats and destroying the enemies of civilization.
Given that terrorism is the number one issue, what are the
other top issues you must address? I have already pointed out
the energy crisis. That must be resolved. Beyond that the most
important issue facing America is the deplorable condition of
our educational system. I have address this in detail in my book,
"Will-Yam in the Land of Giants." Another issue is the
condition of our economy. This is tightly coupled to the problems
of crime in our society. With Terrorism, energy, education, crime,
and the economy you have the top five issues. If you stick to
them with emphasis on the top three, you will have a successful
campaign. If you allow yourself to be distracted by some of the
other minor and fringe issues, you will lose momentum. Stay with
the top three, terrorism, energy, and kids. I will expand on this
in my nest essay.
Back to Gaffer's Variety.
|
|
|
|