The Right Opinion
Messiah Complex: The Sequel?
Listening to some establishment Republicans grousing about the field of GOP presidential candidates should serve as a warning. Republicans, if they are not careful, are in danger of catching the same virus that infected Democrats in 2008.
That would be a messiah complex, the belief that one man (or woman) can deliver us from our collective economic, social and foreign policy "sins" and bring redemption to a nation from the consequences of too many wrong-headed choices.
Perhaps a Republican president with a 60-vote, veto-proof Senate majority and an expanded House majority might be able to revolutionize government, but only if squishy Republicans in both bodies went along, which seems problematic, especially on big issues.
Even if they did go along, does anyone believe Congress -- even with a large Republican majority -- would dismantle the Department of Education, as Ronald Reagan called for in 1982? Would Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid finally be restructured in a way that allowed current and soon-to-be retired people to stay on these programs, while offering a market-based, choice alternative to younger workers? Maybe.
Would the hard left and their acolytes in the media stand for this? Unlikely. Would Republicans, who too often have cowered at their own shadow, retreat from doing the big things because of demonstrations in the streets? Quite possibly. Would the amoeba wing of the party retreat in the face of charges they are "heartless" and "cruel"? Predictably.
There is a way to accomplish all of these things and more. The strength and heart of America is not in Washington. It is in "we the people." Where is the Republican presidential candidate who will say, "I am not your savior; I can't do more for you than you can do for yourself"? Why aren't they telling the stories of Americans who have overcome difficult circumstances with hard work and right choices, urging us to follow those examples? Ron Paul gets close, but he's the crazy aunt in the attic on too many other important issues.
We must re-learn the virtues that prospered previous generations. Forgetting them has contributed to a growing underclass and bloated government. No politician, no government, can shape a life better than the individual living it. Class envy doesn't start a business, or grow one.
Tearing down the wealthy and successful because they lived by principles that made them that way is not a prescription for building up others so they might become wealthy and successful. Why don't more people understand what politicians are doing to them and how they are harming their chances to achieve their American dream?
We know what works. History has taught us, or would, if we paid attention to its lessons.
Republican presidential candidates should be talking about what they will not do and then speak of plans to clear a better path to success for those who would get up and walk it. Tell people to stop waiting for the government bus that will drop them off where they started with little to show for the journey; build wealth, don't steal it from others; eliminate unnecessary regulations; reform the tax code so that everyone contributes something to America because we all benefit from freedom; learn again to live within our means and stop envying others. All these are good for starters.
They should also promise, if elected, to require every agency and program to justify its existence. If any work currently being done by government can be done better and at less cost by the private sector, it should. If any are outdated, inefficient or unnecessary, they should be ended and the money saved applied to our crushing debt.
Most of all, Republican presidential candidates should tell Americans they can't save us. Only we can save ourselves, at least in the secular sense. The Founders gave us a great document -- the Constitution. Now the question is, to paraphrase Ben Franklin, can we keep it? You people aren't messiahs, anymore than President Obama, but you might be apostles of the Constitution.
(c) 2011 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
6 Comments
Brian Norton
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 12:02 PM
Thank you, Cal for pointing out what is so obvious but utterly overlooked: that we the people really are the ones who should look in the mirror and be accountable. Our elected representatives(I use the term loosely as they do not really represent us) only enjoy incumbent status because we keep returning them to office, despite their miserable failure to do a competent, moral job of governance. The American people have grown soft and lazy in the pursuit of a free ride at the hand of government largesse, not heeding Bastiat's admonition that government redistribution is only "legalized plunder". The good news is that the shackles of oppression we suffer under are self-imposed: that is also the bad news, as the most difficult thing for mortals to change is the nature of their character and passions. We have engaged in a generational pursuit of gluttony, avarice and sloth, at the expense of such virtues as self-sufficiency, individual compassion for the less fortunate, and valuing hard, honest work as ennobling. The annals of history are replete with examples of empires that squandered their natural bounties on idolatry and indolence, allowing the moral character to become debased at the same rate they debased the national treasury. None returned to greatness. I pray we will be the first to reverse that trend, but we, the people, have to want positive change more than the silken cords leading us ever so gently down to an economic and social hell. Drug addicts use a 12 step AA program to get clean and stay sober: Perhaps an analogous program could wean us, as a nation, off our addiction to debt and debauchery?
Abu Nudnik
Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 4:56 PM
Yes, looking for a messiah is a bad idea. Excellent point. Messianic pretenders break laws and oaths as do the bottom feeders who think they are all Napoleans when in fact they are, as Raskalnikov finally realized, just worms.I was made to run around a field with a rifle over my head. I let the thing down. I had to do it again. I couldn't. The rifle was heavy and got heavier. But after I let it down it was infinitely heavier. That's because in my mind I couldn't do it. Who can defeat their own mind?Yet we must. It's we who must rise again and by ourselves.
A.R. Nash
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 12:33 AM
Spoiled children cannot unspoil themselves. Undisciplined children cannot discipline themselves. Lazy children cannot make themselves industrious. Degenerate, dishonest, cheating, drug using self-serving louts cannot make themselves virtuous. We have a nation, and prisons, full of such people, but they aren't evenly distributed. When they turn on society, as we've seen in Europe, it won't be good to be in the area that they will prey on. If an aligned Republican government gets elected and isn't lead by a very strong, polarized, clear-thinking patriot then the RINOs in Congress will be part of the problem instead of the solution, and getting anything done will probably suffer from the paralysis of analysis. The size of government bureaucracies has grown so enormous that it will be more than a daunting task to even figure out where or how to begin.
Honest Abe
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 11:18 AM
Thank you, Mr. Thomas, for pointing out what is morally wrong with this nation. I do not believe the public is ready for anyone who calls for hard work and sacrifice because they have been babied all their lives and preached to in secular bromides. Even the "evils" of modern society are not as bad as a nation which cannot yield a little to turn themselves around.
Daylo
Thursday, October 6, 2011 at 1:00 PM
Great article, Cal. "We the People" have just simply gone along with whatever our government has prescribed and that was never supposed to be. Now we need to face our problems directly and get something done. Demand it from Congress! Demand it from our elected officials in every area and start with education. Our children are being propagandized and we need to halt that immediately; returning us all to the roots of our founding fathers. Then and only then can we stop the insantiy.
JohnnyBoy
Saturday, October 22, 2011 at 11:22 AM
I've heard it said that Republicans look for someone who is perfect, and Democrats look for someone who can win. Demanding perfection is the realm of God, and the reason we needed a savior. Don't expect to find it in any human, and that includes not in a president.