I was out walking the other day through a vineyard admiring the color, the scent of the vines in the air, the bounty and The Valley of the Moon’s canvas of amazing beauty. It wasn’t long when I came to the end of the current crop and a gate which provided access to a pasture. I paused for a moment, checked the time and decided to continue my admirations crossing the pasture and on to the next vineyard.
Consumed with the task at hand I proceeded to open the gate, slip through, turn and secured the latch and then resumed my course. It wasn’t long before I was reminded of an old quote which as I recall may be attributed to a former U.S. President, Harry S. Truman. Confessing in advance my vague recollection, his comment offered me a timely perspective:
“Never kick a fresh cow patty on a hot day.”
Not quite ten feet past the gate I found myself surrounded by evidence of bovine gastrointestinal processes along with thirty or so of the species a few of which were looking back at me. Expressionless of course but I couldn’t help but wonder if they weren’t thinking, “…yeah, well, we are cows. Duh!” Yes indeed; duh!
They are discharge-appropriate, metaphorically speaking, of course and how silly of me to question their reasoning after all being surrounded by the magnificent beauty of the valley an overdose of bovine ideology serves a purpose and it’s fair to say my perspective was self-directed; after all they are cows doing what cows do. So it would seem.
Ideology is a rather peculiar species all its own; it’s malleable, mobile and selective. It’s rather like la grande bouffe´ of specious reasonings of no culinary or nutritional value the board of faire having evolved-to-suit. They are always accompanied with the appearance of intellectual soundness seasoned with an untried and undisciplined rationale all its own. I think of its flair much as Don Miguel de Cervantes expressed in his masterful work, Don Quixote.
“…how beautifully I’ve worked it all out, because for a knight errant to go crazy for good reason, how much is that worth? My idea is to become a lunatic for no good reason at all!”
For not quite three years President Obama has occupied the executive office and in this scant span of time he has managed, “…for no good reason….” I can think of, to completely inculcate an administration-wide Ideology-in-Action that has peaked overdose proportions which clearly can only be described as nothing short of self-directed and self-inflicted. It is now so severe an epidemic that few phases of government, fused with Administration Appointees, have voided the temptation of expressing the extremes of this adolescent gee, ain’t it great, we’re in charge, free-for-all! For this particular observation I offer a Clarence Darrow characterization:
“When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I’m beginning to believe it.”
The problem is that this Self-Inflicted Overdose of Ideology is unraveling and dangerously so. The fracturing effects of the this strange and peculiar species would not wait in the wings for long; it began with the various Stimulus, Bailouts, Health Care non-debate and much ado about something-for-nothing schemes such as Cash-for-Clunkers and lest we forget, the ever-popular and ever-present Obama-esque polarizing and oh-so-rhythmic demagoguery accompanied by the peevish annoyances of Nancy Pelosi’s and Harry Reid’s romps though the media-hay grounds.
As if the current economic, domestic and general global disorder isn’t sufficient cause for concern the Administration appears to be approaching a crisis directly attributed to its ideologically-perverse re-interpretation of representative-government and frankly who should expect any different. Yes even Mr. Obama is not immune to the attributes of cause and effect.
Let’s just take a moment and hi-light, in no particular order, the most immediate and pressing Administration miss-adventures:
American Jobs Act
– Stimulus en Vogue
Deficit Reduction Plan
– Recycling portions of the Simpson-Bowles Plan with the addition of the nascent “Buffett Rule.”
Gibson Guitar / Boeing
– A classic example Government Job creation, economic revitalization strategies and undue influences unleashed.
Fast & Furious
– DOJ criminal interdiction policy which seems nothing more than “Guns for Gangs.”
Solyndra
– Yet another example of adolescent exuberance and unconscionable breach of sanity.
LightSquared
– Like Solyndra, an exhibition of the abuse of power and acquired influence defining for itself the role of government.
The first two, the American Jobs Act and the soon to be released Deficit Reduction Plan, one might label simply as political grandstanding and/or a deliberate 2012 staging for a hopeful recovery in the Presidents poll numbers. I of course see it as a perfect example of how unrecoverable the extremes of political-detachment have become. To promote, pitch and/or parade a policy purported to be integral to national economic revitalization with not one single component contained within either capable of delivering on the promise or strategically crafted to do so is merely evidentiary of the Administrations ideological blindness.
In the case of the last four however, Gibson/Boeing, Fast & Furious, Solyndra and LightSquared, each illustrate the Administrations vacant moral compass as well as its complete structural and intellectual incompetence. Slowly and with timid composure Congress appears to be processing inquiries in each of these (four) instances however many are concerned that at this point the DOJ and FBI are so politically biased that to expect discipline and integrity of action to prevail seems doubtful. Let us just hope the risk can be overcome by congressional oversight encourage by Publics Outrage. Let’s hope! As Clarence Darrow, posthumously, provided the quote above, one of his companion expressions seems equally suitable here:
“As long as the world shall last, there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.”
It seems inevitable that all great virtues and laudable ambitions will be met with an opponent composed with a force decidedly adverse to an ascencient cause; as if resistance is not just ever-present but more so that it deliberately intensifies to meet your level of conviction. It may even be that adverse conscience appears to ask the advocate of enlightened ambition on very simply and all-defining question:
“How valid is your outcome and is your conviction beyond that which lies before you?”
An important question don’t you think? It is an all-defining inquiry which requires a response one which must be composed with an all-defining force-in-reserve of its own upon which the fulcrum of efficacy relies. As you ponder the answer might I suggest one read A Unifying Force, it may assist in shaping ones resolve.
Whatever your personal outcome might be, it is important to remember this one fundamental truth:
“We are forever burdened by the unknown good intrusive government silences.”
Curtis C. Greco, Founder
