Realists, not idealists, needed to hold political office | Sound off

By Bill LeDuc

There are many fine plays, books and movies to denote the idealistic values to which we all aspire. We need, however, someone who leads by example, lives and works within the value structure he or she espouses. “Pie-in-the-sky” and visionary ideals are unreachable only because of the inferior nature of our leaders today. We have reached a point in our history as a nation I like to call “perpetual mediocrity,” the best and brightest will not subject themselves to the ridicule and vehement personal attacks; the totally unqualified are swept away immediately, leaving mostly the folks in the middle of the pack.

Some have enough intelligence to tell the voters what they want to hear (i.e. Their “vision” for the future), but most just want to become  millionaires through the elected influence they will acquire if elected. Oh, the people? They can go fishing until campaign coffers need to be refilled. The vision? That can wait until the voters need another injection of empathy and caring for the unwashed masses, the down trodden, the abject poor that the candidate will be happy to supply.

I would offer anecdotal rebuttal evidence to the welfare mom, and the unemployed worker without transportation, and the starving children in the inner city, but there is no need. Most realists don’t give you anecdotes, they deal in facts. Those facts are pretty well where we were in 1946, when Harry Truman said, in effect, “I believe in our nation becoming socially proactive, only in so far as we can afford to pay the bills.” Had every President and Congress thereafter labored in bipartisan unity to maintain that spirit, our charity organizations would be fulfilling all those wishes of caring for the needy. Their coffers would be overflowing, because there would be so much more prosperity and fewer poor to be helped.

You say that would not be the case? My grandfather tithed the church his required 10 percent all during World War II, worked scrap metal gathering off shift, sold his gas rations and donated the money to Catholic charities, while walking to work every day in Minnesota, the summers in the 90s and the winters in the minus-40s. When the war was over and his sons came home, he continued to function the same while providing for the boys until they became self-sufficient. Although not a perfect world, the American people are the most giving people on the planet. Why then must we be taxed almost double so the government can give it away to the 49 percent who will never earn it, will never give back to those needier than themselves, and rather than saying “thank-you,” they hold out their hands for more because they are entitled to it? “Love, pure and chaste…” indeed!

Give the duty of charity back to the people. They will astound you with how well and efficiently these bonafide charities can provide for the citizens’ welfare. Realists getting elected to Congress and the White House will find real solutions in a bipartisan manner, because they understand that cooperation and compromise are the only means to accomplish the return to sanity in our government.

Oh yeah! One more thing --- realists need to get involved. So, if you believe in real progress, real solutions, real Americanism, support the people that can really make a difference, not just the ones whose names you know, the same old cronies. Let’s get our country back!

 

 

Bill LeDuc lives in Coupeville.

 

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