Pretty Lies

Bucks County Democrats, who ironically call themselves "Bucks for Change," are trying to promote pro-war candidates to run against Mike Fitzpatrick for the PA 8th congressional district. Democrats who oppose havinig a pro war candidate are being told to stop dissenting, that everyone must focus only on winning. Why are important issues like the Iraq war considered to be no more than annoying diversions along the path to political power?

The way I see it is that politics inevitably attracts people with an exaggerated sense of self-importance, a need to be in the limelight, or just a greed for power and control. This happens at all levels of government, and regardless of ideology: left, right, or center. It happens in other fields as well. As an educator, I have become used to seeing bad teachers flee the classroom-- not to a different profession, but to become school administrators . . . bad ones!

These individuals become attracted to the political process, not to pursue an ideology, but in order to satisfy a psychological need. Their ideology will generally fit their personality profile, but there is often much flexibility, and the need for power will always trump ideology. Newt Gingrich and (probably) Andy Warren are good examples of people who switched ideology to open a better road to power. They are often very intelligent people, but unfortunately they spend most of their intellectual energy, not in creative problem solving, but in pursuing, expanding, or protecting power. This obsession with power insures that they will not grow as human beings.

Something is going on in the Green party similar to what’s happening to the Democrats. The only difference is that with the Greens this tendency to abandon values in order to grow power is only in its infancy. With the Democrats it is in an advanced, probably terminal stage. In their desperate, but futile attempt to regain their old glory, the Democrats have completely lost their moral compass. It takes people a long time to switch party allegiances. Most Americans belong to the same party as their parents. The Democrats know this. They think, therefore, they can take votes of many groups for granted, as long as they continue to give them lip service. Bill Clinton would go to an African-American church on Sunday, and cut welfare on Monday. And he pretty much got away with it. There was more clear-cutting of virgin forest timber in one year of Clinton’s reign than in the first four years of Bush— but progressives mostly think of Clinton as an environmental hero.

So the Democrats can and will be as ruthless as they need to be to garner corporate dollars. They will be as hawkish as they need to be to garner votes in middle America. When they see your peace button, they will wink and whisper, “I’m going to end this war, and get the troops home as soon as humanly possible,” or some other such insincerity, and chances are, the majority will believe them because it’s what they want to hear. Sadly, most Americans prefer hearing pretty lies to hearing truth.