Anecdotes of a Dreamer

Albert Einstein was a frickin genius! That whole time- relativity thing really rocks! When you are five years old, a day is a lifetime. When you get to be fifty seven, time flies. When I am focused, time expands and good things happen. When left to my own devices, time compresses and shit happens. I have the gift of time. With this gift, I would like to share my insights for survival while keeping my idealism intact. Some are fiction and some fact. Somewhere, its all true.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

The Honest Man?

When I was eighteen years old, I was recruited by my friend, Bill Recktenwald (then the Chief Investigator for the Better Government Association) to work as a poll watcher during the 1968 US presidential elections. I, in turn, recruited my friend and college classmate, Clarence "CJ" Johnson (longtime gymnastics coach of the University of Illinois Chicago).

We were given a list of people that were suspected of using false identities to vote for either Richard Nixon or Hubert Humphrey. After the 1960 Kennedy win, during which Chicago's Mayor Daley was purported to ask of the Kennedy campaign, "How many votes do you need?" it was presumed that both sides would try to cheat. Hence, the Chicago political axiom, "vote early and often."

They assigned us to a precinct in the middle of Skid Row at a flophouse hotel. We had dozens of names and we were supposed to challenge anyone on the list who showed up to vote. Some of these identities were deceased, some had addresses in the middle of intersections and all of them were what we would today view as homeless people. During this period of history, all of the bars and liquor stores were closed during voting hours, so it was easy for the bad guys to provide liquid reward for votes.

By the middle of the day, we had challenged about eighteen people, much to the chagrin of the precinct captain and other election workers. One of them, one Jesus Zabala, pulled out a knife to threaten us. At this point a policeman took CJ outside and told him that it would be very unhealthy for us to continue these challenges. In 1968, in Chicago, it was not a very good idea to ignore the warning of the police. We took the hint and left before the polls had closed. I'm sure they slipped in a few dozen votes.

This anecdote and the other events that occurred during the summer of 1968 are a preamble to my view of politics and my conclusion that whether in the USA or elsewhere, politics is dirty business. I have been trying to think of a single politician who always told the truth, at least after his first political campaign. The only people that come to mind are Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and look what happened to their political careers!

The bottom line is that ALL, ALL politicians are liars. Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Communist, Fascist, blah, blah ,blah.

All politicians have one goal: keep power.

All politicians are on the take, one way or another. An honest politician is one who stays bought.

All politicians operate out of self interest. There is absolutely no such thing as a selfless politician.

Fortunately, sometimes these factors still work in favor of the constituency. When the public good converges with a politician's self interest, we the people win. It happens enough to keep us moving forward (most of the time). However, when the politician's drive to keep power overwhelms his common sense, we the people, all suffer. Decisions are not made for the good of the people, but to maintain power at all costs. Dr. Castro comes to mind as the perfect example of this condition. If US politicians had the same raw power as Dr. Castro, I'm sure that we would suffer a similar fate. As it is, too much power in the hands of a single group of people is a recipe for disaster. When our government works well, it does so because of a balance between ideals and pragmatic reality. When the balance shifts either way, shit happens. Just look at where we are today.

Our job is to remind our leaders that they derive our power from us. When our leaders come up for re-election, we need to examine what they have done for us and the "common good." If their greed has been tempered with truly good work, then we can send them back to work. If they begin to realize that re-election is not automatic, they might actually try a little harder. Lobbying as we currently know it must be stopped. Influence peddling and corruption are cancers that eat away at any democracy. It's all too easy and common for our leaders to control us through the exploitation of our fears and prejudices. If things get too easy, they create issues to stir us up. When we allow our leader to do this, we deserve the outcome.

Even though I have been a life-long Democrat (born and bred), I've come to the conclusion that a government that governs least, governs best. I guess that makes me a Libertarian Democrat! Our lives are not enriched by a government that manipulates what we think and what we do. The government should pass no law that restricts the action of its citizens if those actions do not cause harm to any specific individual. Laws that protect the "community" from harm are often pretexts for limiting the rights of a minority or other unpopular group. I see no contradiction with this idea and our current fight against those who would change our world through terrorism. While we cannot recede into isolationism; our future actions with relation to our neighbors should be positive and supportive. We should encourage governments that understand the principles of democracy and free speech and disassociate ourselves from governments that use their powers to dominate their people through fear and violence. Our own government should pay attention to the Bill of Rights. We don't need corporate welfare anymore than we need longterm welfare for individuals and families. Politicians that wrap themselves in the flag and tout their support of "family values" are using the fears and prejudices of their constituents to divide and control without addressing the base cause of the problems facing the US in an ever more competitive global society. We all want personal safety, and the liberty to pursue our dreams and aspirations. We don't need a bigger government; we need a government that provides the conditions for us to grow and thrive. Our current "cultural paradigm" is creating a society of stupid people that crave more governmental control and less personal responsibility. We the people have the power to change this paradigm into one that values the individual and protects the rights of ALL of its citizens (and residents).

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