This is rant will certainly be inflammatory.
It is my belief that the Unites states of America, as a whole, has become a nation of cowards. Not as individuals, I’m sure we can all point out dozens of cases where individuals did heroic or amazing things. But as a nation we no longer have the will to see things through or to take the actions that are vital to our survival as a nation. I not only speaking of the wars we fight that started as a knee jerk reaction but the fact that we then fail to extricate ourselves from those conflicts with any binding and permanent effect. We instead retreat because Americans as a body lack the will to continue.
Our politicians are an extension of our will, it may not seem so most of the time, but they WILL DO whatever is necessary to get elected/reelected; in that at least they are consistent; when we, as a whole, lacked the will to continue, as support eroded we slapped together a regime, and propped it up and said to the world, Look here, we tore it down but look we put a government back up. That it was a government that cannot succeed given the cultural influences of the area they live in was inconsequential. We lacked the will to do what was necessary for them. Instead of doing what needed to be done, we pulled up stakes and left. Leaving what was roped in place hastily to fall on its own. The current state of affairs is neither shocking nor unpredictable. Any dozens of analysts, political and apolitical alike could have given our leaders the same information. But it would not have mattered. Because the people that put them in power lacked the will to stay or enact a course for permanent lasting change; That is the effect of our cowardice outside our nation.
The effect inside is a growing divisiveness and will for change coupled with an apathy and the childlike mentality that the government can make everything better. The government in a republic is only as good as the people themselves are. We were once amazing, not smarter or more compassionate, not wiser or happier. We once had the will needed to enact our vision individually and as groups, of what this nation would be. We were passionate about our country, not as a misguided nationalism secure in the belief that our nation was blessed be deity and thus could not fail, but willing and hopeful participants in our own liberty. Voting was a duty and a privilege not taken for granted. Those who had it used it, those who didn’t, wanted it. Rightly seeing it as a primary step in equality.
Once you can vote, the government of a republic must pay attention to your desires. The apathy we feel for government is insidious. We have allowed 2 political parties to become the norm, and they are virtually indistinguishable from each other, at least in action if not in platform. 3rd parties are crushed down and forced to fight tooth and nail just to be seen on a ballot with legal action taken by both parties to keep them from being heard. And we as a people do nothing. we sit on the sidelines and convince ourselves that it doesn’t matter anyway because all politicians are corrupt. As long as we allow this cowardice to continue we will have exactly the government we deserve. Until our freedoms have eroded away and our vaunted Constitution is just a pretty piece of paper in a building schoolchildren are forced to go to.
Here is a hint, in the voting people there is always a third blank line. That is not extra, you can write a candidate in, being on the ballot makes things easier but it is not the only option. We the people, have the power to make these changes. To wake up and see what our government does and does not do well. And limit it to those things we need it for instead of those things we lack the will to do ourselves. We need to wake up before it is all gone. This is metaphorical call to arms not a specific agenda. Until we make these changes in ourselves, vote nationally and active locally there is no escaping this downward spiral. Until we take up the reins again and dream, and act on those dreams, of a better informed future. The government will keep grabbing up the power that we refuse to take up ourselves until this dystopian society we are seemingly obsessed with comes to pass.
Pelgris 