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Just Fix It, Boss! I'm Incapable.

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(no news recap this week, just a thought to share)

My daughter got into watching House of Cards, with Kevin Spacey. (SPOILER) She's at the point where his character was killed off, which she was looking forward to. Funny, even though we know they are characters, it's hard to leave the sins of the actor behind them.

I was watching a minute or two of the show, and a news commentator blasts President Underwood:
"I only care about one thing: Did the President make the country better, or did he make the country worse."

That got me. First off, that is the typical binary bullshit that got us into this mess. It's a net gain, or a net loss. Period. My side wins, yours loses.
If "my guy" advances "my agenda", it's a win. Simplistic, dogmatic trash. There is no magic bright line delineating "better" and "worse". It's a false dichotomy. And it's in place to divide us.

Now I'm gonna lose a bunch of you here, but stay with me: It's not the President's job to make the country better.
The President is just a man (or someday soon, just a woman). All politicians are simply leaders at best, but too often inept managers. They are not a prophet, messiah, or any other kind of moral guide. You are your own moral guide. As a people, we need to stop projecting on others. It's unhealthy and counter productive.

Now, I can hear the screams, "But, the President has all that power!" Ask yourself a simple question: Why?
Year after year, decade after decade, We the People abdicated our power to a bloated Executive. And the only choice to get our power back is to have "our guy" sitting in the Oval Office. There's that false dichotomy again.

Here's a novel idea: If you're really terrified of a single, morally-flawed man with that much power, work on limiting the office (instead of the man).
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this is just the beginning. Sure, in 2020, you may get "your candidate" in office, that will cram their ideology down the throats of the American people. Then, the next election cycle, the other candidate will swing the policies wildly the other way.
Because they can.

Here's my dog in the fight: I believe in big people, and small government. The average citizens CAN take care of themselves. All this focus on electing your candidate to "make things better" only ends up "making things worse" for someone else. So the Democrats and Republicans can tag-team us into a stupor of dependency. The more we embrace this "Just fix it" attitude, the more broken it will be.

Ironically, there are a few doctors in Congress. All of them have forgotten the Hippocratic Oath.
Especially that "...do no harm" part.

Reminds me of an ugly chapter in Vietnam. My Lai.
"In order to save the village, we had to burn it to the ground." Ah, the purifying flames of "change".

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  1. midnightpoet's Avatar
    You touched on a good point. The problem has always been the people. All systems have issues, if we want positive, common sense change the people need to do take charge. This isn't easy by any means, and you don't need to destroy the system, but expecting politicians to solve all your problems is futile.
  2. Plasticweld's Avatar
    Leaders lead. They do it by focusing on objectives and putting those objectives in a form that the others can envision doing and accomplishing them.

    They verbalize the how, inspire those to action and create unity among those who share the common goal.

    A good leader is the captain of the ship who says we are going over there, the crew is the one who does all the work, he just makes it clear as to why they are doing all the work.

    A Good leader is the cheerleader, not the team.

    To what degree you believe in that, is the degree in which you understand how the presidency or any form of leadership works. You can not force others to follow you, but you can get them to want to.
  3. Winston's Avatar
    PW, all people want today is their "captain" to set autopilot to Free Stuff Land, and not expect ANYTHING from the crew.
    Universal Basic Income? Howsabout Universal "take care of yourself, you're an adult, have you no shame or pride"?
    That's the leader I want. One that tells me I can, provides a level playing field, then gets the hell out of the way.
  4. Plasticweld's Avatar
    I know from past experience anytime someone uses the words, social justice or level playing fields, I am going to get screwed.
  5. Kevin's Avatar
    I was going to make a comment about how even here in LilyLiver we know about some of the strategic euphemisms designed to yank our wallets.

    One thing about a Liverian is they really don't want to pay. They don't mind other people paying, but not them.

    Then I looked thought I should look up 'lily-livered', like maybe I'm senile, right, so I better check it, the definition?

    Vocabulary.com came up and I clicked. Three out of 4 examples were anti-gop or anti-republican usages by newspapers the WaPo and Seattle times. 4 examples in a row were political and anti-.... - from the same slant.
  6. Winston's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Plasticweld
    That term has been co-opted by those that have a preference to use government power as a sledgehammer, instead of a screwdriver.
    Equal opportunity means that the government simply treats everyone equal. A "level playing field" is the state where no preferences are given. No set asides for corporate welfare, no quotas for identity politics.
    SJWs now threaten to use the government Killdozer to crush and grade everyone to the same level. The sad thing is that many in society expect a government, or THEIR President to flatten all the obstacles in their path.
    It is truly a time when those meek of spirit look for strength in others. And those strong in resolve mourn the death of individuality.
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