The Tail Wagging the Dog

I think it is time for the American voter to finally be afforded a seat at the table. Throughout the Bush years, I kept hearing that the president was losing his base because he was not conservative enough; because he was said to have moved too far to the left and embraced the likes of Ted Kennedy. Now, the complaints are the exact mirror image: Obama is in the process of losing his base because he is not radical (left) enough and much too willing to make concessions. Whether any one of these two men - who’ve had the misfortune of being president during these dysfunctional times - adjusted their actions and rhetoric due to expediency or epiphany remains an open question.

In any case, this is a discussion for the political class and taking head pundits. It leaves out the rest of us - we, (in Washington terms) the ‘great unwashed’, the sheeple; the voter/taxpayer – who, most likely by deliberate design, are becoming increasingly confused (and suspicious) about what Washington may actually be up to.

The sheeple have not yet have been totally rendered blind. (Alan Strang, a.k.a. Barack Hussein Obama, has not yet been moved to consummate his dirty thought.) People see that while they’re hurting financially, Washington’s elite are doing quite nicely by comparison. There’s also nothing unusual about periodic outbursts of harsh rhetoric in public debate; or in elected representatives jumping off the government Ferris wheel with their multi-colored parachutes ablaze in the dying winter sun. There’s nothing exceptional about tabloid intrigue, or in mock media crucifixions. What is confounding is the constant political shifting to the left or to the right that deprives this hapless constituency of a reliable measure by which to hold their representatives to account.

In November ’08, the American people voted to end war, close Gitmo, and adopt socialist governance. A year later, most of what Bush had put in place and maintained continues unabated. It’s no wonder that the Left is peeved. They might very well decide to just stay home during the next several election cycles, just the way the conservatives did for McCain.

Pundits call it efficacy or ‘governing from the center’. I call it muddying the stream. All this sniveling around simple yes/no positions gives voters of any persuasion the false hope that their particular expectations are about to be met. When these then are allowed to gather dust, voters become disenchanted with the very concept of democracy itself. They stay home on Election Day and watch reruns of ‘Friends’ instead. That’s when the ‘special interests’ come out to do their worst and, as we have seen for all too many years, the tail has been happily wagging the dog.

Let the voters decide once and for all whether they want capitalism or socialism; fight terrorists to the death or pay them off; support or abandon Israel; keep or shred our Constitution; support or implode the dollar; designate education to be instructive or merely day care; etc.

Any of the above deserves a firm commitment. The people should be aware of where their candidate stands. Once the election has been decided, the representative should not be allowed to stick his moistened finger into the air to decide which way to vote. He is already committed to vote as he has promised. ‘Say anything just to get elected’ should no longer be tolerated.