SPEAKING
FREELY To
err is human, to smear
divine By Dallas Darling
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times
Online feature that allows guest writers to have
their say. Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
Even Niccolo
Machiavelli wrote: "A prince must also show
himself a lover of merit (excellence), give
preferment (promotion) to the able, and honor
those who excel in every art." But the way some
Republicans and Democrats are smearing and
"slinging mud" at each other, they put to shame,
even embarrass, the supposed founder of Western
political theory known as "Machiavellian" or
"real-politik".
(Macchiavelli's book,
The Prince, shocked readers not just
because he encouraged lying, cheating,
ruthlessness, and
injustice, but because
he did so with no apparent concession to morality.
However, Machiavelli was a master of irony.
Therefore, some believe The Prince has been
wrongly misinterpreted, in the sense that it
should not be taken seriously or literally.)
Some Democrats and Republicans, including
President Barack Obama and presidential contender
Mitt Romney, are filling the air waves and mass
media with smear and attack adds. While some
Democrats label Romney as a candidate for
millionaires, a corporate raider, and an
outsourcer of jobs when he was governor, some
Republicans continue to call Obama a fringe
candidate and radical socialist who wants to
destroy America.
Republicans jumped on
Obama's decision to halt the deportation of young
immigrants as pandering to America's Hispanic
population. While his universal health care plan
is an "abuse of power," he "wakes up and looks out
across America and is proud to announce it be
worse" charges Romney. Romney also accuses Obama
of being "weak" on Iran and he himself would take
a much harder line, making sure Iran does not
become a threat.
Obama accused Romney of
"textbook economics" and not dealing with "real
world outcomes". "You reach out your hand and only
get a fist" reveals polarized leadership instead
of presidential. Some Democrats have played the
"racist vote" card and smeared Ann Romney by
claiming she "never worked a day in her life."
Every mistaken phrase ("I like firing people" or "
I am not very concerned about the poor") is
continually played.
At times, every
politician uses a poor choice of words. They
should not be used to smear a candidate or make
them appear reckless, foolish and unfit for
political office. In a virtual media-like
electronic age, one filled with voice-overs,
scripts and cut and paste television shows where
celebrities appear to be perfect and ideal, such
mistakes and gaffes are common. They reveal real
humanness, which is to err.
In a political
culture where to smear is divine, American voters
are the real losers. While families are
disintegrating, their incomes have drastically
declined. Wages are at their lowest since the
Great Depression. Thirty-million are unemployed,
millions more homeless. Meanwhile, overseas wars
rage in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen. At home
Americans face mortgage, corporate, drug,
education, and healthcare, and inequality wars.
Ancient moralists believed the purpose of
the state was to make the citizens and promote
solutions and opportunities for self-fulfillment
while guarding against injustices. In Republics
and Democracies, the people are theoretically
sovereign. They are the ones who are supposed to
be making decisions, deciding the important
issues, framing questions and debates, and
choosing the "politics of words, language and
scripts."
Moreover, Machiavelli believed
princes (political candidates and parties) "must
encourage his citizens to follow their callings
(profession) quietly, whether in commerce, or
agriculture, or any other trade that men follow…".
The prince should offer rewards to whoever does
these things, and to whoever seeks in anyway to
improve his state. Ultimately, then, even
Machiavelli had compassionate and humanitarian
aims.
Lakhoff and Wehling write, "The
politics of 'framing' is (or should be) about
moral values and deep truths, and the policies
that flow from them."(1) What are the values
behind a "market economy," its tax cuts/increases
and de-funding of social programs. What are the
beliefs in continuing to fund wars while Americans
suffer? What about the ethics of equality and
social justice for all? Yet Machiavelli accepted
morality in politics.
But with smear
campaigns, hyper-cynicism, and the "politics of
any meanness," it appears Republicans and
Democrats have forgone their original calling and
purposes. Sadly, they have put themselves first,
even above the sovereignty and welfare of the
People. Like the ironies found in The
Prince, the two major parties are imitating
"power by any meanness." With such a goal, lying,
cheating, ruthlessness, and injustice follows.
Some Americans think and say and try to
live through their political parties and what they
view in the mass media. They emulate smear
campaigns and polarized behaviors. The rise of
"special" AND "news interest groups" think only of
their self-interests with little respect and
toleration towards others and their opinions and
values. Thus, some families have become very
polarized and relationships destroyed through the
politics of meanness.
One must wonder how
different America would be if the two political
parties debated the important issues that really
impact Americans, instead of each other. What if
they started to imitate a politics of
constructiveness, respect and practical solutions,
an ideal-politik where "to err is Republican and
Democrat, to forgive divine and democratic?" Even
still, what if they shared power with other
lesser-known and less established political
parties?
It seems Americans will continue
to suffer-and die-under the amoral "tyranny of the
Democratic and Republican Parties" and their smear
campaigns. To America's dismay, some have
forgotten the "human element," which is to error
and then forgive and provide practical solutions,
solutions and more solutions, solutions that allow
citizens to become fulfilled. By the way, when I
wrote: "To Smear Divine," it was meant to be
irony.
Notes: 1. Lakoff,
George and Elizabeth Wehlng. "Why Conservative
Sell Their Wildly Destructive Ideology Better Than
Democrats." See www.alternet.org,
June 18, 2012.
Dallas
Darling is the author of Politics
501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political
Thought and Action, Some Nations Above
God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day
Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism
in the Context of John‘s Apocalyptic Vision,
and The Other Side Of Christianity:
Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality,
History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for
www.worldnews.com.
You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com
and wn.com//dallasdarling.)
Speaking
Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows
guest writers to have their say.Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing. Articles submitted for this section
allow our readers to express their opinions and do
not necessarily meet the same editorial standards
of Asia Times Online's regular contributors.
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
