Politics and power go hand in hand and form the essence of how society functions. Assigning a judgment is arbitrary. It can be used for good results, or for bad results, and, of course, to an essential degree, is in the eye of the beholder. Nonetheless, politics and power, essentially power groups, form the way we function in society. It often is the misuse of the ingredients that keeps many in a society from paying attention to events, seeking to understand the nuances of candidates, incumbents, and eschewing a desire to make decisions about persons, places, and things.
Politics and power are real and not just a figment of imagination every four years, or every two years. True democracies work better when voters vote and when voters pay attention.
Debates about political philosophy often in the past constituted ideas, important thoughts, and a reasonable way of offering a discourse which can yield an appeal to voters. The serious discussions have been diminished, political parties seek merely power, and offer disdain to anyone who seeks truth and justice.
We must do better in the U.S. and must understand the consequences.
Unfortunately in the U.S., a philosophical discourse is on the verge of being a relic of the past. Theater, sound bites, gotcha games, and political power have become the center of attention.
Those are reasons many generally disinterested persons lose more interest and withdraw from serious discussion, in part for fear of receiving scornful scoldings from the engaged partisans, especially the partisans who have little interest in a balanced approach.
In a sense, politics have become a contact sport.
What to do, because our democratic republic is at stake if we do not take truth and justice seriously.
Simply, using lies as truth is a recipe for disaster. If we are to keep our democratic republic, and in reality we are a social democratic republic, all relevant and positive terms, we must be honest, truthful, and seek justice. That primary discourse helped our society in the past and changing course now only will move our society into the dust bin of diminished democracies.
We have choices every year, every day, not just every two years, or, every four years. Taking no action allows those who seek power by means of dishonest disruption to dictate the course of our society and determine if justice, truth, and honesty have opportunities to prevail.
There is nothing inherent in either U.S. major political party which makes one political party superior to the other major political party, however, human beings with strengths and weaknesses compose political parties and if followers and observers are honest, and see a course of action, we will receive a benefit in the future. Doing nothing today will constitute a demise. We continually see choices. Ignoring facts which require relentless strength seep away and sap our strength. We must get off the dime and do it for democracy, our place in the world, and our place in history. Autocracy requires strong opposition.
There is a group of individuals interested in taking a new course of political action, many former Republican Party members, and independents, who offered a sneak preview last weekend that an important announcement would be issued nationally in a then unknown form Thursday, March 13, to form a coalition. It may be the beginning of relevance. We must tune into new possibilities.
• A special salute is for a relevant alderman in Aurora for 36 years, Robert J. O’Connor, whose last day in office was at Tuesday’s City Council meeting and served as mayor pro-tem for six months, November 2016-May 2017. He was wise, respectful, strong.
Clear and Concise, Week 19 Year 2:
The essential method of speaking and writing clearly begins with understanding the use of and differences between nouns and verbs. It is simple, however, effective. Simple sample? The growing trend of using ask as a noun is clearly incorrect. Ask is a verb. One asks another person. It is not an ask we can use. Instead of ask use the noun request. That basic understanding is the foundation.
Another abhorrent word that is used incorrectly is partner as a verb. We are partners, we do not, under clear circumstance, partner with another person! We should shutter to utter it incorrectly.
If we learn usage of nouns and verbs we can write and speak more clearly and coherently.