Do you know anyone, meaning a fair minded, decent human being that cares about the real issues that affect our lives (jobs, income equality, benefits) that would volunteer to be a lifelong politician? Just think about it. Let the concept roll around in your acquired, voluminous data that you house in your inner brain, and then determine if you know some one foolish enough to pursue a career in American politics?
I don't know a soul. Not one. One might ask, why not?
Well, there was this guy who decided to run for president in 1987. This guy was, for all intents and purposes, was probably and probably still is a pretty decent guy. He is a family man, a husband and a father. He had grand dreams for America's future and I guess the worst thing that you can say about the man today is that he is and was a progressive liberal.
And as well all know in today's political landscape, woe to all those that cleave to progressive liberalism. In a few words, the fall of progressive liberalism can be laid at the feet of Gary Hart. But wait! Can one man be wholly responsible for the toxic landscape that exists today for anyone that decides to enter the treacherous waters of our American political system?
Sadly, it is true! Gary Hart, a decent man with a single indiscretion (a possible indiscretion) is the sole reason that our lives are filled with unqualified, uneducated, culturally unsophisticated individuals that seek public office. Or perhaps I am judging the man too harshly. I mean, how can one man's possible indiscretion result in our current political environment?
A decade before Gary Hart, Richard Nixon, a conservative republican, committed some pretty heinous political crimes. The man left office in shame because of his political shenanigans. Gary Hart was outed for an alleged indiscretion, personal, and in turn his political ambitions went up in flames. Gary Hart was not the first man to run for president tied to personal indiscretions. But the fourth estate, the press, way back in 1987, decided that the private life failures/indiscretions of a political candidate suddenly became public fodder. Never before in the history of US politics had the private lives of presidents, presidential candidates, and the long line of those lesser positions that lead to the office of POTUS, had ever been placed under the microscope of a press corps intent on notoriety, Pulitzer(s) and possible television/movie contracts instead of following its journalistic creed to provide the public with who, what, when and where. In other words, Gary Hart helped to cement the hope and dreams of fame and celebrity in the minds of young and established journalists.
And, we too are complicit in this perversion of enabling this new breed of toxic journalism that enable the soul-sucking habit of hating our fellow American citizens because of political, religious and ideological differences.
I really hate to be the bearer of bad news but the terrorists have already won in America. As a nation, we have never been as divided as we are today. We have willingly sacrificed our freedom and liberty to worship individuals like Bill O'Reilly, the king of insult and arrogance, and Rush Limbaugh, a hate monger in any context, to name just two that are responsible for so many heinous lies. These men along with a growing cadre of women are dedicated to the perversion of hate speech are paid millions just to further agendas that keep FEAR dominant in our lives instead of reasoned thought.
How is it possible for a man like Brian Williams to become suspect after years of journalistic integrity when a man like Bill O'Reilly, the bully, the racist, the consummate purveyor of mendacity, continues to bloviate with impunity?
I understand that for some people it's easier to hate than to seek common ground with others. Well, actually I can't really understand the brand of hatred spread daily by Limbaugh and Fox and Friends. It takes a lot of energy to hate another human being. And to think that this process of hate yields very little to the common individual, unless that individual is one of those highly paid to disseminate divisiveness and hatred, the process of hatred is just a zero sum process.
So, as a nation, we really lost quite a bit when Gary Hart was outed because of a personal indiscretion as a possible adulterer. If he had been elected, it's safe to say George W. Bush would have never been elected in 2000 and we, America, probably would have avoided this endless War Against Terrorism. The free-flowing venom against other citizens would probably have been less vitriolic and the likes of Bill O'Reilly, Anne Coulter, Sarah Palin, ah...the list is exhaustive, might have existed but not at such a fever pitch.
These people all attest to loving America, and I can't help but wonder, if in fact, that they even begin to perceive what love means or entails?