Reflections: Too Much of a Good Thing

There is a massive irony lodged in the gut of the American political system. The political left, one of the chief characteristics of which is a constant, strident call for more democracy, has, in national elections over the past fifty years, been repeatedly defeated by the very democratic impulse that it strives to nurture.

Over and over again, Democratic candidates, their surrogates and supporters, as well as liberal elements of the media, have pointed out to the American public that the men being put forward as presidential candidates by the Republican Party were just not bright enough for the job. Those same candidates have responded with Aw, shucks--just plain folks campaigns that have largely been successful. Candidates such as Eisenhower, Reagan, and Bush 43, have all worked this gimmick successfully, even though the results of their presidencies have shown the liberal message to have been both truthful and predictive. And now (amazingly enough) even McCain, the multimillionaire consort of a beer distributorship heiress and the son and grandson of Navy Admirals, seems to be utilizing this tactic successfully against the true “man of the people,” Barack Obama.

Obama’s sin is to have--against all odds--succeeded. By accomplishing more than could ever have been predicted for the mixed-race son of a single mom, Obama has left Joe Sixpack, Joe Lunchbucket, and Billy Joe McShmoe behind, trapped in their addictions and their entertainments, their consequentially meaningless lives, and their unrewarding series of dead-end jobs; has left them--yes--clinging to their guns and their flat-earth version of religion. Ah’m jist as good as you are, they drawl—knowing full well, deep down inside, where that last bucket of KFC is lodged, generating suet and bowel gas, that they ain’t. Not really. But, by Gawd, they can vote for the man (or babe) who tells them that they are.

The problem, ironically, is too much democracy. The Founding Fathers knew the danger. We have clearly forgotten it.