Shutdown Watch

So, the white house claims the federal government shutdown is the Schumer Shutdown. Well, it’s not. The dealmaker president is at it again – labeling things that matter, falsely. He does it continuously. He opens his mouth, moves his lips, and trusts whatever sounds escape. It is very much like he can’t believe anything he says could possibly be wrong.

Boy does he have the wrong number!

Wrong is trump’s middle name. I guess he thinks because he’s the boss, he has the power of right. He’d be wrong about that; we have standards in America that strive for what is correct, factual and true. It is not a convenient standard. Many among us have learned that the hard way.

In the past, we had many who kept track of such things. The media for one. Columnists for another. Teachers and academics for yet more trackers of truth and meaning. Churches and pastors, preachers, too. But those were the days when we really worked at our morals and principles. We were raised to believe ‘someone is watching you’ and will slap you back to reality if you fool around or tell a lie. Remember those days? I do. It was the 1940’s and 1950’s.

Those days were not perfect. We didn’t know then what we do today. There is much more fact, history, truth and topical material to master today to make sense of the world. But right is still right no matter how much others might try to tell you otherwise.

The shutdown of the federal government is one of those moments in our history. Two ideologies are at war in our nation. The conservatives believe small government; the liberals believe government should be sized to do the job as well as possible. The catch in this ‘argument’ is pretty simple. One side trusts government; the other doesn’t.

Conservatives don’t trust authority in government hands. Middle of the road citizens – and liberals, too – have faith and trust in government. They know the workings of government are accomplished by fellow human beings and that processes can go wrong, but also can be fixed. That doesn’t mean government is always right; it is human and makes mistakes. But it is not evil.

I guess that’s what conservatives fear the most – loss of control over their lives and that loss is by evil design, not by human mistake. Hell of a way to live life. One wonders how they have the time to make money and become wealthy. Of course, not all do get wealthy, because they, too, are human and err and foul up. They make mistakes and risks don’t always pay off.

A big difference between the time I was growing up and today is this: both sides argue their positions without benefit of truth. They spew false facts and arguments as though they are true. Both sides do this. It is evil whoever is spouting it. But the decline in honest, truthful communications is now at an all-time high. No wonder no one knows what is true or not; there are false assertions everywhere.

Discernment is hard work. It takes discipline, an open mind, reading, research and a whole lot more logical analysis to discern what is right, truthful and factual. We don’t have much of that going on in our media, or our opinion makers. We sure don’t have this going on with our elected officials. They are at the epicenter of this horrid reality.

To get us to a better place, it is time to remove all of them and start over. Elect new representatives who will actually represent the truth and our hopes for the future.  If this is impossible, then we need to consider doing away with political parties. They don’t represent us and manipulate the process of governance. Surely, we can invent a better system than the one in place now.

To do otherwise is to give in to the powers of manipulation and evil. The non-truthers are winning. And we the people are losing. The stakes are high. Change is needed. Make that change soon, please!

January 22, 2018