GOVERNANCE BY NARCISSISM

Once upon a time we wanted our politicians to have the good sense to compromise for the good of the country.  Things have changed.

What we really want now is a politician who AGREES WITH US!  After all, don’t WE know how things should be?  Don’t WE know how everybody should think and act?  It’s all about us!  We’re right!  Can’t everyone see it?  And our politicians, ever poll-sensitive, are happy to indulge us.

But the fact is we’re not always right.  And not everyone wants to live as we do.  And even if we’re right, everybody has the right to be wrong.  This insistence on our own beliefs is fine in everyday living, but when we start codifying our beliefs in law, well, our right to do what we want ends at the other fellow’s nose.  Or does it?  All over the country there are attempts to define for us what’s right, and what rights are.  The left tells us one thing.  The right tells us the other.  And if we are to be part of one or the other, we must accept all positions.  If we agree with part, and disagree with part, we are wrong-headed, even evil.  And any politician who dares to compromise, well, he’s a target.  Because he’s not like US!

I realize I’m labeling myself as a pusillanimous pussy-footer, but I’m an inveterate moderate.  I see both sides, and often disagree with both.  I don’t want to impose on anyone my way of life, but neither do I wish to live as the left or the right says.  I will vote for any candidate (if there actually was one) who state that he or she will compromise for the good of the country!  I realize this opens me up to accusations of having no principles, but in truth, I do.  And I try to live by them.  But I am not so enamored of my own brilliance as to think that I know exactly what you ought to think and do in every situation.  If you agree with me on that one point, please, please, please, voice that opinion to your elected representatives.  They really need to hear it - and so does the left and the right!