With the presidential election just a few days away, both candidates are pulling out the stops. In politics, like boxing, there is no bank on punches. Emotions are high. Partisanship is high, higher than it has been in a very long time.Why? It is because there is so much at stake. The federal government touches upon every aspect of life in the U.S. The policies crafted and implemented by the modern president affect deeply private and personal aspects of people's lives. The president, with a stroke of a pen, can set policy on civil rights and gay rights. He can set policy on what your children should learn and what they should value. He can affect policy regarding what people should eat, what they should buy, and where they should live. He sets foreign policy. He establishes domestic priorities. He can tell people what they should think, what they should eat, and what they should believe. In short, almost every facet of life in America is under the purview of the White House. That is why emotions are running high.
Through the casuistry of modern liberalism, matters traditionally considered to be private have become subject to public intervention. Individuals can no longer be left to come to their own conclusions regarding social issues. They can no longer be trusted to determine their own morals and principals. They can no longer be relied upon to set their own priorities and pursue them in a responsible manner. They cannot be left alone to raise their children as they see fit. They are unfit to come to their own conclusions on what is fair and proper. They cannot be allowed to determine their own "values". They must be educated. They are too lazy and ignorant. They must be indoctrinated into the Idea. They must be enticed, prodded, and coerced. It does not matter whether the Idea is determined by progressives or conservatives. It is the mere ability of the government to determine the horizon of thought in the nation that engenders the struggle over its control. What people believe is important to them. If their beliefs are contradicted by public policy they will endeavor to bring social policy into harmony with their beliefs. Others might seek to withdraw from the controversy and live their lives according to their own values. The trouble with that is that progressives, conservative and liberal alike, want the hearts and minds of everyone. The existence of heretical beliefs, however marginal or isolated, is anathema to progressives. Everyone is obliged to embrace the Idea. Even those who seek to withdraw from public debate into their own homes and communities will find no peace for the government will pursue them.
You cannot have a government that affects so much of peoples' live without stirring their emotions. You cannot have a government charged to defend or advance public sensibilities without raising the stakes.You cannot raise the stakes and not expect a struggle over who controls the government. The higher the stakes, the more bitter the struggle, and the stakes have never been higher. Instead of campaigns centered on policy, we have campaigns based on emotion. We are not to support or oppose a candidate. We are called to embrace or fear him.
More than ever, politics is about "visions". Visions are unsubstantial things. Visions are unencumbered. They float freely in the mind. So are "feelings". They appeal to emotion, not intellect. They are not subject to reason. You cannot persuade emotion. You can only appeal to it. So if your feeling is that Obama's vision of a better America is more enticing than Romney's, cast your vote for him. If you think Romney's vision for America holds more appeal than Obama's, cast your vote him. Either will disappoint.
The real danger lays not in waste, cost, inefficiency,or turbulence. It lay in the inevitable failure of the Idea to transform reality and usher in the new age. It is there that the Idea achieves its true and terrible form because the Idea is not abandoned. In their frustration, the adherents of the Idea will become more tenacious in their efforts to overcome perceived obstacles. The Idea will become coercive. Progressives will seek to compel the public to embrace it. They see nothing wrong with compelling the public. Why should they? Everything progressives do is for the advancement of the public. In time, when the Idea begins to bear fruit, the public will thank them and wonder how they ever could have been so ignorant.
Romney has called his campaign a "movement". Obama claims Americans need a "champion" to fight for social justice (whatever social justice might require at the moment). Someone needs to remind the public that elections are campaigns. They are, or should be, about politics, not about movements and chivalry. Romney is not Moses.There is no Promised Land of Prosperity out there waiting for a leader to take us to. The middle class is not a damsel in need of a chivalrous knight to defend her. America is a country that, more than ever, needs a president, nothing more and nothing less.
In a recent editorial, Dallas Morning News editorialist Carl Leubsdorf asks what kind of America do voters yearn for. Like many people, Leubsdorf takes for granted that the presidency is at the heart of American life and contains the power to shape the country in any fashion the president chooses. As the presidency goes, so goes America. It is unfortunate that he is largely correct. That is why the Oval Office is so bitterly fought over. When people enter the voting booth on Tuesday, they will not be choosing who will preside over the government, defend the Constitution, and execute the laws . They will be choosing what kind of country they yearn to live in. If you want to know why politics have become so acrimonious, look no further.
