I’m
sometimes asked why my column doesn’t focus much on current political events.
Two reasons answer this question. First,
it’s difficult to be timely on anything “current” when your column is
published monthly with a submission dead line two months in advance.
Second and more importantly, my real interest is in political philosophy
and principle rather than what some elected weasel did today.
My
musings are not often essays on any one political episode.
However, when I do reference specific events, it’s to better illustrate
the principle I’m writing about. I
prefer to focus on an underlying philosophy that can be applied to specific
events—and especially to encourage people to think for themselves based on
solid principles.
I’m
convinced that if you establish firm philosophical principles, events, past,
present and even future, will be seen through the eyes of that philosophy and as
the old saying goes, you’ll soon discover, “There’s nothing new under the
sun.” Politicians have been
creating the same problems since Adam was elected governor of Eden.
If your
political framework is based on the principles of our Founders and plain common
sense, it will lead to a solid understanding that needs no spoon fed
interpretation from political pundits or nationally syndicated talk show hosts.
Too many
times I’ve found that these nationally acclaimed “experts” are little more
than “Spin Meisters” for their side of the political aisle.
If you listen or read closely, you’ll see that most of what they say is
simply “Our side good. Their side bad” and it goes on day after day after day.
If the politician in question isn’t on their side of the great partisan
divide, they’re quick to call a pig a pig.
If however he is one of their own, they’ll just as quickly put lipstick
on that pig and call it Miss America.
Spin
machines, in my estimation, don’t encourage people to think very much on their
own—which is a real disservice to the overall process as I see it.
If they did encourage independent thought, you wouldn’t actually need
them for very long; their ratings would drop as would their revenue stream and
we all know that would never do. Moreover,
this lop-sided spinning doesn’t do the work of holding ALL political feet to
the fire equally as was hoped by our Founders.
The
Framers of our Constitution had a healthy distrust of politicians and
established a system that would keep them in check. That system however required the constant attention of the
people. As Thomas Jefferson said,
“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”
and an unfettered willingness to yank a tight knot in the political leash when
necessary I might add.
A
personal political philosophy is essential in a representative republic such as
ours. The Founding Fathers based
their faith in America’s future on well informed and clear thinking citizens
that would be able to see through the fog of daily politics and hold their
elected officials accountable to the laws and in particular, to the
Constitution.
This
approach is what led Franklin to caution they had given us a Republic, “…if
we could keep it.” The
Founders knew what it would take to keep this American dream alive and it
wasn’t a country of spoon fed, non-thinking, uninvolved sheeple that didn’t
pay attention or have strongly held political principles based on a firm
Constitution.
The
Constitution was to be the ultimate yardstick by which our political lives were
steadfastly measured—a yardstick that IS CERTAINLY NOT a living, breathing
document subject to the judicial activism of these self-anointed lords of the
bench.
So am I
unconcerned or oblivious to what my elected representatives did today or said
yesterday? Of course I’m
concerned—as it pertains to my responsibility as an active American citizen
charged with holding their political feet to the fire.
Have I
seen much new over the years of closely watching these daily episodes that make
the Keystone Cops look pretty good? Not
really. I simply judge what these
politicians do against the clear standards provided in the writings of
Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton and Madison which, combined with a
touch of common sense, tells me all I need to know about the path we’re on.
I can
read and interpret for myself what they wrote without the help of a judge,
politician or pundit and I believe in my heart, they meant what they wrote and
simply wrote what they meant—nothing more complicated than that.
So my
advice and purpose has always been and will remain…study the thoughts of our
Founders, develop a political philosophy based on sound principle and view
political events through the eyes of those principles.
You can certainly be open to and consider other sincere viewpoints but in
the end, always think for yourself. I’m
convinced if you adopt such an approach, you’ll quickly find you really
don’t need that talk show as much as you thought.
Just the
view from my saddle…