In the context of their bravery, sacrifices, and noble deeds, it seems pretty sad how the country they fought for and the freedoms they protected are so poorly served today by members of the political class. Their actions, in many cases, are nowhere close to being classified as courageous and noble, they are just bad politicians acting badly:
- A February 10, 2011 Associated Press (AP) report recounted how a U.S. Congressman from upstate New York had resigned for sending a shirtless picture of himself to a woman he met through Craigslist. The Congressman, Christopher Lee, was serving his second term and is married with a young son.
Usually, I would not care one bit what two consenting adults do with their lives. However, this is a U.S. Congressman who should be focused on addressing and solving the major issues facing the country today, not meeting women on an Internet site. He was not elected to start an illicit affair with a stranger he met on the web that could have exposed him to the potential to be blackmailed for the affair, a possibility that would likely not result in behavior that benefited taxpayers and voters. He should be focused on the major issues of our times. Certainly not noble or courageous, just plain stupid and self serving.
- This situation with this upstate New York Congressman is not to be confused with a similar affair from last year with another U.S. Congressman. At that time, Congressman Eric Massa resigned from Congress in the middle of an investigation into whether he sexually harassed male staffers. Certainly not noble or courageous.
- Politico reported on February 24, 2011 that Nancy Pelosi was to be honored by the Democratic National Committee via a praising resolution. However, prior to the ceremony where the resolution would be presented, the Congresswoman sent her daughter to the Committee's Resolutons Committee and said they both of them wanted to amend the resolution to make the Congresswoman look better by attributing more successes to her.
In my view, this is the outer limit of pomposity. If someone wants to recognize your achievements and honor your work, especially your political allies, I would think you should their praise in a humble but proud way. You do not let your ego run so amok that you insist in writing your own praise resolution. I have never heard a World War II veteran worry so much, or worry at all, what he or she had accomplished in service to their country. They did what the did heroically but humbly. They rarely, if never, embellished their record. Ms. Pelosi's behavior is certainly not noble or courageous.
- An Associate Press article reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently took on the issue of the legalized brothel industry in his home state of Nevada, "telling state lawmakers the time has come to have an adult conversation about Nevada's legal sex trade if the state hopes to succeed in the 21st century. His remarks to the state legislature was met with mostly silence.
Let's see: the United States is rapidly spending itself into bankruptcy, it is bogged down in two wars that drains our wealth and kills our soldiers every day, the Middle East is changing in ways that no one knows where it will end, our borders leak, and our schools still fail to educate. And now one of the top politicians and elected officials in the country is going after a legal industry that involves two adults freely indulging in a private interaction. Talk about lack of priorities. The Senator should be acting a little more courageously on getting our country's issues under control rather than lecturing adults how to behave. Certainly not noble or courageous, given the decisions the Senator should be making on behave of the country.
- An article in the February 18, 2011 issue of The Week magazine reported how the Montana state Senate was working on adopting a "cowboy code" as a guide to the state's residents. This code urges state citizens to live each day with courage, be tough but fair, and always ride for the brand. The fact that the state needs jobs, revenue, and other needs makes you wonder why the state politicians are not tackling the tough issues facing their citizens as opposed to coming up with slogans.
Much like Senator Reid's obsession with brothels, the state's wasting of time and resources working up slogans allows them to look busy but avoid making the tough decisions needed to help the state resolve its issues. Certainly not noble or courageous.
- Another article in the February 18, 2011 issue of The Week magazine reported that the latest approval ratings for the President showed an unbelievable dichotomy. 81% of Democrats approve of the job is is doing while only 13% of Republicans approve. This 68 point difference is the second largest gap ever with George W. Bush having attained a 76 point difference. But he needed a second term to get that bad.
How did President Obama get the nation so divided so quickly? Maybe standing back and remaining silent while those Americans that had reservations and had opposed the President's plans and policies were called un-American, knuckle dragging Neanderthals, racists, Ku Klux Klan members, enemies that needed to be punished and other derogatory names.
It certainly takes a serious lack of courage to stand by while fellow citizens that the President is supposed to be serving are denigrated by his allies. Certainly not courageous or noble and the divisive numbers show how poorly the President serves half of the U.S. population. Certainly not noble or courageous, and certainly not a leadership example like our brave armed forces.
These above examples are just recent events of bad politicians acting badly. It ignores the many other cases of adultery and the resultant lying (Clinton, MacGreevey, Spitzer, Ensign, etc.) and the numerous examples of politicians using their office for self serving purposes including the use of earmarks to fund their re-election campaigns via earmarks, granting themselves automatic pay raises every year regardless of how well the perform, and acting selfishly when bold and non-self serving actions are required.
The political class actions and performance are so often an affront to the freedoms that were so bravely protected over time by our armed forces, freedoms that are now at risk not from an outside force but from the actions of the very people that should be protecting them on the home front.
It is so sad that our political processes create a ruling class that display none of the positive and noble characteristics that our armed forces display today and which they displayed during World War II. Wouldn't it be great if Steven Spielberg could develop and film a movie that illustrated our courageous and humble our political class was. Unfortunately, if he did, it would be viewed as fiction, or worse, science fiction.
Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at http://www.loathemygovernment.com/. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.
Please visit the following sites for freedom:
http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment
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