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Jul. 14th, 2004 10:41 amThe blessing of politics is its ability to take extremely complex processes and make them simple. It is also its curse.
Consider one sentence expressions of political viewpoints:
Liberal -- The government's responsibility is to improve the life of all its citizens.
Conservative -- The government's responsibility is to preserve values that strengthen our nation.
Libertarian -- The government's responsibility is to protect basic outlined rights, then stay out of the way.
It's tough to write such statements, as billions of daily issues start to get slippery. If one believes life begins at conception, then Liberalism would be the perfect philosophy to preserve the rights of the unborn, yet Liberals rarely accept anyone who would believe so. If one believes in the values of responsibility and accountability, then Conservatism would be the best philosophy to put limits on the ease of corporate crime, yet Conservatives rarely accept those who oppose laissez-faire.
It is the very succinctness of politics that cause short political mantras that may be generally accepted, even though they are demonstrably untrue:
*Conservatives are warmongers (though in the last 100 years, Liberal Presidents started and presided over 80% of US wars and military operations)
*Liberals are for expanding the size of government (Though the last two Liberal Presidents deregulated airlines, trucking, and railroads, and overhauled welfare)
*Conservatives are against black equality (even though more Liberals voted against the Civil Rights Bill than Conservatives)
*Liberals control what news we see and hear (even though talk-radio and FoxNews have higher ratings)
If those mantras and the proofs against them start to ring all sorts of alarm bells, then good -- that's the point. Those issues are far too complex to be shoved into a single statement, or even a dozen statements.
The same processes happen today: "Bush destroyed the economy!" even though the jobs and economic prosperity under Clinton was yet another lie, propped up by phony earnings reports and non-existent businesses disguised as dot-coms. "Bush stands for freedom and liberty!" which ignores POW abuses and the largest intrusion of police power into the daily life of its citizens throughout the history of this country.
There are truths and falsities in each of these. Issues are complex; they blend with each other and affect one another. Manipulating an economic indicator or the status of a combatant will have effects that will bubble through the world like a butterfly's wings on a weather system.
Consider one sentence expressions of political viewpoints:
Liberal -- The government's responsibility is to improve the life of all its citizens.
Conservative -- The government's responsibility is to preserve values that strengthen our nation.
Libertarian -- The government's responsibility is to protect basic outlined rights, then stay out of the way.
It's tough to write such statements, as billions of daily issues start to get slippery. If one believes life begins at conception, then Liberalism would be the perfect philosophy to preserve the rights of the unborn, yet Liberals rarely accept anyone who would believe so. If one believes in the values of responsibility and accountability, then Conservatism would be the best philosophy to put limits on the ease of corporate crime, yet Conservatives rarely accept those who oppose laissez-faire.
It is the very succinctness of politics that cause short political mantras that may be generally accepted, even though they are demonstrably untrue:
*Conservatives are warmongers (though in the last 100 years, Liberal Presidents started and presided over 80% of US wars and military operations)
*Liberals are for expanding the size of government (Though the last two Liberal Presidents deregulated airlines, trucking, and railroads, and overhauled welfare)
*Conservatives are against black equality (even though more Liberals voted against the Civil Rights Bill than Conservatives)
*Liberals control what news we see and hear (even though talk-radio and FoxNews have higher ratings)
If those mantras and the proofs against them start to ring all sorts of alarm bells, then good -- that's the point. Those issues are far too complex to be shoved into a single statement, or even a dozen statements.
The same processes happen today: "Bush destroyed the economy!" even though the jobs and economic prosperity under Clinton was yet another lie, propped up by phony earnings reports and non-existent businesses disguised as dot-coms. "Bush stands for freedom and liberty!" which ignores POW abuses and the largest intrusion of police power into the daily life of its citizens throughout the history of this country.
There are truths and falsities in each of these. Issues are complex; they blend with each other and affect one another. Manipulating an economic indicator or the status of a combatant will have effects that will bubble through the world like a butterfly's wings on a weather system.
