Freedom- The Fleas Come with the Dog

We get pretty frustrated about what works and what’s broken in our democracy. Some people would say it isn’t a democracy. We elect people to represent us. We’d like to think they speak for the majority who elected them. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don’t. A person elected to public office with 51% of the vote will displease half of the people all of the time, and the rest of the people some of the time.

That explains the frustration, but not the anger. The anger is the brainchild of Evangelical Politicians, AM Talk Radio and Cable News pundits who have lowered the bar on civility. They know that an intelligent, thoughtful dialogue on the issues will put people to sleep. The world can only tolerate one NPR news program. So they ratchet up the testosterone, poke a stick in the hornet’s nest of the disenfranchised, and pour gas on every issue to keep the energy level of dissention revved up.

What results is a latent displeasure with the elected representative by most of the people all of the time. These vocal pundits know this, so they keep the pressure up to sway the thinking of a small percentage of people who will decide the next election. It seems rather flippant - we vote them in, we vote them out- and it’s the 2% of the voters on the margin that are tilted to the left or the right by the effectiveness of the sales pitch – the one liners, the smears and fears relentlessly flashed on the boob tube.

So let’s keep our eyes on the big picture, and not be swayed by the emotion around the issue of the moment. As I write this critique of our process, all the pundits are getting lots of airtime, the raucous town hall meetings are still news, lies and half truths continue to flood the airways, and one elected representative publicly called our President a liar. Civility is suffering, but freedom of speech is healthy. We just have to remember the fleas come with the dog.