Snobs & Common Denomintors

News stories Tuesday morning were focused on republican presidential primaries…Super Tuesday don’t you know? Headlines claim Santorum and Romney are fighting for the blue collar vote in Ohio (since won by Romney by a squeak). As the campaign plunders along, the script becomes weirder and weirder. But that’s just my point of view. Perhaps yours is different! 

Lowest common denominator keeps nagging up from the news ooze. I’m getting to the point of believing the political strategists may be having a conversation something like this:

“It doesn’t matter what is fact or truth, it only matters what the people believe. We’ll capture that and get their votes. More votes added to our column. Eventually we win the election, at least in that precinct, or county, city, state. It all adds up. It gets us closer to the goal.” 

Trouble is what goal? Acquired office? Or winning some delegates? Or just winning a primary? When the votes are counted, exactly what was won? Now, consider the next contest. Have we won anything we can build on for the next contest? Or maybe, just maybe, have we established something that won’t work very well for us in the next contest, or the final election several months down the road? 

Seems to me candidates are doing everything they can to win. The process of winning, however, is tossing out the principles, values and ideals the candidates started their journey with. Both Romney and Santorum believe in the US Constitution. Yet they wish to embed bigotry and discrimination in their ‘governments to be’, if not actual constitutional amendments. Does this not strike them as self defeating? Here are the inconsistencies, just a few of them:

• Separation of State and Church/Religion: we have freedom to practice our religious beliefs however different they may be from each other; we do not have the freedom to embed religious creed or belief structures into the law of the land; what you believe is OK; just don’t require me to follow your religious beliefs; you live your life by your religious values while allowing me to live my life by my own values. This includes some messy issues like abortion, right to life, marriage definitions, and more. Bottom line: live your life as though it is the law but allow others to live their lives as though the law favors them.
• Women’s rights: a woman has the right to live her life in freedom the same as a man; access to health care and prevention is the individual’s right to pursue; whether this involves the right to abortion, contraception, medication or medical treatment, it is all the same. They have the right to choose.
• Gay rights: legal rights for one is legal rights for all; it is the guarantee under law of the US Constitution. A person may not understand gay issues; that should not be the burden of the gay population; it is the work of the majority to safeguard the minority. Gays have a right to exist regardless of religious belief. Therefore, under our system of laws and government, Gay Rights exist and equal treatment under that system is guaranteed. Marriage is marriage whether gay or straight. Get over it. Live your life the way you think it should be lived; allow others the same liberty. 

And the lack of understanding of how the country and its economics work. Being a businessman is not a precursor for being a national strategist on economics. Economics is Micro and Macro – Micro is business firm and household; Macro is national and global. They are connected but operate separately. Operating a firm for its own ends and survival is not the same as national or global community economics. The policies are different; the strategies work very differently; different control points are involved; tools of the trade are present in Macro economics that don’t appear in Micro economics.  

If Romney doesn’t understand that, then his presidential aspirations are seriously in doubt. Santorum doesn’t talk about economic policy much because he simply doesn’t understand the field. That’s OK if you acquire knowledgeable people to advise you in these areas. But it is not alright if economics is converted to a political football and used to win elections. George W Bush did that and where did we end up? He never learned that ‘trickle down economics’ doesn’t work. Spouting sound bites on the campaign trail does not pass muster as economic policy. There’s more to job creation than saying the words. Jobs are nurtured into being, are built on trust of future expectations by investors, are supported by policy direction, and much, much more. Playing at this for political gain is dangerous for the rest of the nation. All of us. 

Conservatives evidently feel they are the bedrock of America – constitution, founding fathers, religion, patriotism, military might – and thus the only voice of reason that should be heard and obeyed. Conservatives also seem to think that if you don’t believe as they do you must be damaged goods, a leftist, a liberal or some lesser being. Differences are not embraced or given dignity. They cast a dishonorable shadow on their lesser brethren. I hope I’m wrong, but their collective public face is as I have described. Don’t they realize they have painted themselves into a corner?  

Just observe how the remaining four presidential candidates bearing the republican banner are fighting each other over narrower and narrower word games. 

Jamie Raskin was a law professor when he testified before a Maryland Senate session and said: “Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You didn’t place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible.” Mr. Raskin is now a Maryland state senator! 

We need to keep the order of things right. The needs of the nation should be pre-eminent. We have problems. They need to be repaired. For the good of each and every one of us. They can be fixed. But only if the governed consent to it. That requires they understand  goodwill is needed to support the repair work. When the elections are over, will that goodwill be present? Or will the animosity and distrust again prevail as it has for over 30 years? 

Methinks our nation should seek the highest common denominator rather than the lowest. That has nothing to do whatever with snobbery. But it does require that our fellow citizens attempt to be aware of and open to facts and truth. And to trust one another as we work toward the future we will share.

March 8, 2012