Importance of Being Earnest

Being serious of mind and tongue takes discipline. Being flip of tongue shows not wit but unthinking. Bon mots are often entertaining but they really don’t represent intellect; just sloppy puns and witticisms. Those may be clever and enviable but the core of the statement means nothing. It is like a riddle. Entertaining and clever, but let’s leave it at that.

During this past presidential election we heard a lot of flips of the tongue. It is the nature of political campaigns. It is also the nature of raw political communication. It may be clever and attention grabbing but when the analysis and background work is done the statements are empty.

Name calling, too, occurs in political communications. Those are even emptier. There is no proof of the facts behind name calling. Put her in Jail! came with no facts and no criminal convictions. Nor would there be. Just campaign rhetoric and noise. Like “Make America Great Again!”  No facts or history lessons. But then there was no need for such was there? Just empty claims and suppositions hoping you and many others would believe in them. And they did. They worked. The bearer of the false statement won the election. Under false pretenses it was soon learned.

Trouble with tongue flips and political bon mots is that they set the stage for a lot of disappointment for supporters. The facts do not support the claims nor will they ever. History is, after all, based on facts and hard evidence. There are standards to be kept in history. There are no standards for political rhetoric; at least morally there are no standards. We see that sad circumstance constantly.

Look at the White House statements on Syria’s poisoning of its own people. “So sad and tragic” claims ‘he who shall not be named’. Really? When did this man ever demonstrate his empathy for the underdog? Even his supporters – many of whom are classically cultural underdogs – have been abandoned. His white house-ian actions do not track with his campaign rhetoric. But he claims jobs saved and jobs created. Those actually created came from policy tracks well established by his predecessor. Those saved were but shibboleths of false claims; none have been saved; all are still dwindling away toward Mexico’s border just as the unions had said they would.

But claiming credit is his style whether earned or not. Earnest statements appear to work among voters. So he states them. And he continues to earn support from die hard fans.

Say something false often enough apparently transforms it into fact for many Americans. I’m not sure I understand fully where this disconnect comes from but it is evident throughout our political system. Witness Illinois Governor Rauner’s claims that the state is broken and needs to be fixed. That statement is true enough but the implication is that he is bent on fixing the brokenness. Nothing much has been offered to do that but retain the on-going political war between upstate and downstate politicians and democrats and republicans. Same-o, same-o. The past continues apace to repeat itself endless ad nauseum.

The only thing that will fix broken Illinois is compromise fully understood and sincerely worked on. That requires people of goodwill. Inasmuch as our troubles are of longstanding, 40 to 50 years now, goodwill people are evidently not in good supply. So the troubles will continue.

The governor is insincere about his work and policy. He is earnest, though, so he will probably succeed in re-election. That is a sad reality of being earnest. Better to know the unsuccessful enemy than change to another lesser known? And so the horrors of a dysfunctional state continue.

Like white house polity. Nonsense confirmation hearings. Nonsense Supreme Court nominees. Nonsense press conferences. Nonsense facts and ‘alternative facts’.

Makes one wonder how the history books will be handling this travesty of dishonesty run amok.

At least historians will need to earn their reputations honestly. Now there’s earnestness for you! Why can’t that be installed in Congress and state legislatures? It could if voters were more diligent in their news reading and discernment. But then, that hasn’t happened for some time now. How else did we get here?

April 13, 2017