What Were They Thinking?

Posted by Larry Miller on February 4, 2009 under Why | Be the First to Comment

Four people high in the government, or aspiring to be, all having “missed” or “forgotten” tax payments. For the most part, payments greater than most Americans make in a year. Payments that, except for the good congressman were only considered when the prospect of high governmental offices came to light, and payments made without penalties and interest we mere mortals would be liable for.

There is no need to go into the gory details of Congressman Charlie Rangel, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, former Senator Tom Daschle who just withdrew his name from consideration for HHS Director and Nancy Kellefer, who was up for the imaginary position of Performance Czar. The important point is that for two, Congressman Rangel and the Treasury Secretary there were no real consequences. For the other two, the it actually brought an end, at least temporarily, to the dream of DC prestige and power. I guess two out of four is not too bad, especially for the party where problems of this type tend to give street cred.

One has to wonder if these are isolated cases or just the visible tip of the iceberg. There is growing concern and mounting evidence that our government and the people that run it are far removed from the concern and values of most Americans. We see these people explaining to us how we need to tighten our belts, cut back, and even be prepared to make further sacrifices to pay for their grandiose schemes, all the while congress increases its office budgets and the president raises the temperature of the oval office to tropical levels.

As if the unfairness of this is not bad enough, of even deeper concern is the lack of values exhibited by those looked up to by many and almost worshipped by some. It seems that they operate by a different set of rules than normal people. They tell us they feel our pain, then carry on with the mindset of Leona Helmsley when she said, “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”

It would be easy to believe it is a phenomenon that only exhibits itself in the Democratic Party. It kind of fits my predisposition, but, sorry to say, there are signs of the same thinking on the other side of the aisle… names like Ted Stevens and Duke Cunningham come to mind.

What this means is that neither party is our savior and neither party can be trusted to lead us back to the free society our founding fathers envisioned. The question becomes do we quietly conceed our country and world to the ‘elites’ and accept their plans for us, or will we work to take back our country from the professional politicians and media moguls?

We rightfully become upset with the likes of John McCain when he sells out his party values to make a deal with the “other side”. Yet, how many of us voted for the man as the “lesser of two evils”? Were we also not guilty of selling out our principles? Is not voting for the lesser of two evils still voting for evil? This being the case, are we not getting the government we deserve?

For years, those of us who work within the Republican Party have been patronized and marginalized. Our efforts have been solicited, but our input ignored. We have been told there was nowhere else to go… and we believed them. We have given our support to candidates who have talked the talk, but in many cases, have failed to walk the walk.

The president has told us that some people are so important to accomplishing his goals that he is not so concerned with their character. He does not understand that knowledge and skills are insufficient to outweigh moral or philosophical shortcomings. In our own way, we have agreed.

We have seen our country fall into the hands of those who share little of our values. Could it be that we have not shared these values with others? Could it be that we did not value them enough to make sure they were implemented?