Say something meaningful. Not just mean.
I am an armchair political enthusiast, you all know this. I have stepped away from the inside baseball of running a Party, but I still care about our politics. Why do I care? Simply I want to see an effective, trustworthy and visionary government. It can be done, it has been done, and it will be done.
But I get down. I lose my faith and I question my naivete, almost daily. How can we get that type of government, when we have seemed to embrace the frantic and negative aspects of politics and campaigning.
Here is my favourite most recent US example of what I mean.
This is what President Barack Obama said to the US public about educating American children to help them compete as a nation. I believe it was from the State of the Union Address:
“And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.”
This is what Governor Rick Santorum said yesterday:
Interesting eh? See how Obama’s statements which are all-encompassing, positive and create a vision, are turned into these three themes by Santorum?
- Snobbery
- Indoctrination by Liberal college professors
- Obama wants to “Remake Americans in his image”
I don’t know all the answers to this problem in politics and neither does any one political party or politician. But rest assured that between two politicians I will always choose the one with the best ideas, vision, positivity, depth and competence.
Finally, here is an example, taken from the Wildrose Alliance of Alberta, where great new ideas and a positive message for the future are replaced with a fabricated attack on the PC’s. If you listen closely, they suggest many things the PC’s are going to do to you… use the politics of fear.. .to scare people into voting for them.
What I have always found saddening, is why my friends the “Fiscal Conservatives” get themselves tied up with the semantics of these dumb’ed down attack politics. But that’s a topic and exploration for another day.
Co-Founder of two beautiful daughters and 