Recently I submitted a diary about the campaign commercial for Governor Bill Richardson's reelection. The ad, a very clever, witty and positive message is shot as a western, and features Richardson on a horse, and in my favorite scene, entering a saloon and asking for a glass of milk...
http://www.billrichardson2006.com/...
While the vast majority of comments were positive and loved the commercial a few negative comments were made, and they were mostly petty and nitpicky. It made me really take a long, hard look at the comments on other postings, and I came to this conclusion...
THERE JUST IS NO PLEASING SOME PEEPS.
I don't believe that there will ever emerge a candidate who is perfect. After all, we are all human, and at least for now only have human candidates. These candidates can have some great ethics, great morals, great ideas, but at the end of the day have to surround themselves with more humans and rely upon them to implement these great ideas, and these humans also being imperfect, well it just serves that there are going to be some kinks in the plans. The road to progress is a bumpy one.
That said, when someone is really genuinely making an effort to progress, and there are some bumps in the road, do we blame the person who had the idea? Would we like to be held to this standard at work?
Suppose you came up with a brilliant idea that would save your company a lot of money. Your idea is well received and a team is formed for its implementation. Overall the team makes steady progress toward the goal, with a few minor setbacks. At the end of the day your boss calls you into his office and says, "Sorry Joe, but while your idea was brilliant and you worked hard, and though we are only a month from the goal, because you are three weeks behind I am yanking the project. You can continue to work here, but rest assured you will never be promoted."
How would you feel?
We live in a society that expects instant results. With microwave ovens, fast food, instant breakfasts, instant banking, high speed connections, and faster downloads, we expect everything to happen immediately. This instant gratification culture has given us unrealistic expectations when it comes to our leaders.
It drives me crazy to hear petty grievances being named as the reason why people won't support a candidate. I mean, come on, ideologies are a good reason to support or not support a person, major shortcomings in a persons' character, too. But progress being steady but not fast enough? A person's appearance? Doesn't that sound ridiculous?
Most of all I get really upset when I hear about a good leader that he or she "made compromises" and that is a bad thing. What kind of leader adheres so rigidly to his or her own political dogma that they are unwilling to consider other opinions or needs or make any consessions to those that differ from him? A tyrant, my friends. We have one of those now, would it be any better if it was "our kind of tyrant?"
It is absurd to hold politicians to standards we don't hold for ourselves, it is crazy to expect them to be more than human. How intolerant a people do we have to become before we stop, look at ourselves, and realize that we have to let it go?