​Our Opinion / Unenlightened leadership, destructive practices, bankrupt morals

Countering America’s Imminent Demise

Ordinary Americans cannot continue to be blind to the unsettling reality that our elected congressional leaders are too often self-serving, pitifully inept, condescending con-artists, and not in the slightest focused on any of us or the greater public good.

Granted, this sentiment is bubbling up at the present moment due to the idiocy in our nation’s capitol after the death of a U.S. Supreme Court justice.

The Constitution spells out responsibilities of the President as well as the U.S. Senate; yet the GOP-controlled Senate vows not to allow the President to make a judicial appointment.

That said, climbing back up to the balcony for a broader view while at the same time getting out of the muck and the weeds, we do believe the American people see this for what it is.

It is insidious. The honest truth is that our national political system is broken. It’s become corrupted and is anything but effective, civil and diplomatic. As a group, members of Congress -- and we include both parties -- could not have done better at disenfranchising the people they represent and serve. What an accomplishment.

They lie. They distort facts. They conduct public business behind closed doors. They work harder to derail shared approaches to problems than they do to achieve resolution. They alienate. They finger-point. They blame. They undermine. It is pathetic beyond words, at least from this one American’s point of view.

Congressional leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives do not know what the high road looks like anymore. They’ve lost their way. They are anything but good leaders of people.

How can they not see this? How can they be ignorant of public sentiment and dissatisfaction? How can they pretend they are doing good work? How can they sleep at night?

Sure, the Supreme Court vacancy is front and center. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Truly. Our national conversation too often fuels hate, fosters racial divides, blames unfortunate people for conditions of birth, and condemns new immigrants and religions, in effect selectively and dangerously declaring some human beings less worthy -- read inferior -- than others.

There are three branches of government and one of them especially is paralyzed: Congress. It makes one wonder if they have even the slightest understanding of governance and the checks and balances between them. Their behavior indicates otherwise. If we were to judge Congress by the fruits they bear, all we’d see is something good gone bad and unfortunately rotten to the core.

The path Americans are on now is more precarious than perhaps ever. The trickle-down poison is tainting our way of life in practically every regard. The fabric that made America great is coming undone. It’s unraveling and fraying, weak and discolored. It is unfortunate beyond description, the consequences incalculable.

I am only one voice, but I am not alone. Americans must demand that elected leaders lead each other and the rest of us back up to the high road before we collectively crash and burn.

We need to heighten our expectations. We need not be part of that which will indeed be our undoing. We need to unyieldingly stand up to dark forces, unenlightened leadership, destructive practices and bankrupt morals. It is absolutely urgent that we do this now.

Drop by drop makes the inundation. Each of us matters. Collectively we can redirect our country to greatness and good. United for good is a better choice than cowering in fear and desperation, powerless and at the beck and call of others who do not have goodness in their hearts and who lead us astray.

Because it is our choice. We are not lemmings. We are not slaves. We are not subjects of our government or leaders. We are not mindless, not stupid. We are not unmindful of wrongs and we are not obligated to condone destructive methods and less than satisfactory results.

It’s been said a lot, and it’s still true: we are the envy of countless hundreds of millions in the world who do not have it so good and who would gladly change places with us. Yet we are at risk of losing everything we know to be good.

We cannot squander this America our forebears sacrificed so much to build. Please, before it’s too late, stand up. Speak up. Do it now and passionately because it’s your God-given right and is urgently needed. However you do it, just do it.

The alternatives -- and we know this deep down – will be catastrophic to this America we know and love.