Price of Demagoguery

Accusations. Conjecture. Flurried wanton, pugnacious statements intended to abstract, obfuscate and confuse are flung at one another with abandon. Yes (quick, duck!), it's election time here in Merrimack, and misrepresentation is in bloom.  When you don't agree with a candidate's position or argument, post a straw man comment on the site of your choice and then torch it with a molotov cocktail, infused with specious wisdom, demagoguery and falsehoods! That'll teach ‘em.

I have my favorites for School Board and Town Council, and I sound off on their behalf occasionally. But I try – try – to remember that it'll be counterproductive if I post something vile, pernicious and nasty, but oh, baby, it would feel so good to do so.  Alas, I must not.  I'm a grown man, father of two, husband to a extremely forgiving wife, and they deserve not to be embarrassed (all bets are off, though, when my children are teenagers; dad's cannot escape embarrassing their teenage children; it's in the contract, after all) or humiliated by the irrational, emotionally infused outbursts of their loving family member. So, I holster the rhetorical flair, count to 10, then mumble the invective uncontrollably under my breath as I read the comments and blog posts, which are clearly misguided and directed at me personally!...(1,2,3...) OK. Better.

The vitriol is not limited to the elections. Look at the on Health Care and note all of the deleted comments. I think the editor is working overtime policing some of the rhetoric used in the comments.  People are passionate, and that's good, until it veers off the road, hurdles the guard rails and starts end-over-ending down into an abyss, resulting in someone's lawn being toilet papered.  It's all fun, until you're left removing the wet, stringy, dangling paper products from the oak limbs in your front lawn.  We're all neighbors here. Let's try to keep it civil. Leave the nastiness for decadent Vermont-ers! Just kidding...kind of ;0) 

I must admit, until I started reading the posts on the Patch regularly, I didn't consider that we had so many lefties in town, or even in the Live Free or Die state, for that matter. After all, it's not the Live-somewhat-free-if-you-get-permission-to-do-so or Die-your-hair-green state. Don't get me wrong, though I think most lefties are really misguided, I think it's good that we have a variance of ideas (or, aghast, one might say a diversity of ideas).  I think debate is what this country is all about, whether it's the independence pleading pamphlets of Paine's Common Sense, the Federalist papers persuading reluctant New Yorkers, or the opining Patch posts  about the School Board. It's good and it's healthy, so long as it's honest. 

My objection is when it's not done it good faith. Yes, I know that's the reality, but it doesn't mean I have to like it, and it doesn't mean it doesn't come with a price.  I take people at their word and in good faith, or at least I try to. Is it wrong to at least hope for the same in return?  Somehow, when I say I'm not for Obama Care, because I'm not for an overreaching, coercive bureaucracy that's going to intrude on the private sphere of the individual, it is interpreted by some that I want kids to die in the streets, terminal patients to share bedpans, and Big Pharma to gorge on the poor. How that interpretation was arrived at is anyone's guess (although, the lack of thinking through a problem and the projection of one's own fears on another comes to mind), but for the honest observer, it's not accurate, and some would argue it's dishonest. 

This happens in other areas too.  I really don't believe that just because a department exists year after year that it necessarily should, nor that it's entitled to a budget increase.  So, I expect that each year, the onus is on the department to make its claim for existence and for any increases in size, scope, and funding.  This isn't the post 20th Century little league where everyone gets a trophy because they suit up for all the games. This is the taking of citizens' time and labor and directing it toward other ends with the intention of helping people and the community.  So when I, and others, stand athwart the department yelling, "Stop,"  it's to verify that department is still necessary and to verify that it is indeed working.

With all that being said, I, and conservatives like me, have one thing on our side that will force the hand of the spenders.  There's one thing that cannot be argued against, nor be intimidated by demagoguery and misrepresentation: math.  Yes, math folks. A $16,000,000,000,000 debt can be overlooked or ignored only for so long, until it comes crashing down.  When the lenders won't lend, the Fed can't print money, and the interest is due, what then, eh?  More government is out. Less is in.  Sorry, no choice in the matter.  You better enjoy the nanny's teats while you still can, because soon, they'll be tucked away for good.  The sad part of all this is that there are some essential services that need to be done at all levels: Federal, State and Local, but because "essential" has been distorted, misapplied, exaggerated, and misrepresented, we are no longer able to have a conversation about them. People are unable to discern the actual from the political. This demagoguery stuff has a price, and unfortunately, we'll see it paid.

One more thing, conservatives, remember to vote on April 10.  Lefties, I believe you vote the following Tuesday :0)