The American Caste Political System

What a simplistic nation we are. When the current President of the United States can reduce a presidential primary to the simple task of national security, we are in trouble. Is it fitting a synonym can be inferred between a panchayat of the conservative Jat caste in the northern Indian state of Haryana and our United States President? A father murdering his own pregnant daughter to maintain power, status, and property is an extreme example, but so is denying diplomacy is the core of foreign policy. Maybe in President Bush’s eyes he is not dealing with politics. Maybe as the elected Commander and Chief of the United States military, he believes he is the sheriff of America. Maybe he believes the job of president is similar to being a ranch owner. That is why we have a Secretary of State, a United Nations, and legislative committees on foreign policy. Unfortunately within our traditional system of checks and balances it is easy to “pass the buck.” When things go awry, it is easier to point the finger at another agency such as FEMA. One would assume like in corporate America, politicians as CEO’s have had to work their way up the ladder of success. This would allow them the time and experience to learn the job. A solid record of political achievement therefore would be beneficial to the President of the United States. Politics. Politics has many definitions, but which ones most appropriately apply to the United States President? The study of government and the state? Activities associated with governance? Seeming sensible and judicious under a set of circumstances? A specific set of beliefs or principles? Activities within an organization aimed at improving someone’s status? It is unfortunate that over time many of these definitions of politics have developed negative connotations. That would mean, like the interpretation of the United States Constitution, politics has become corrupt. Wouldn’t it be easier to abandon the negative connotations and instead reinforce the positive results of good politics? That means that a simple, effective, and positive model should be available. That is impossible in modern America, because our current government systematically has failed at its task of governing our country. There is no role model in recent history that personifies success in politics, at least not in the last eight years of Republican rule. Media is not helping. The adoption of Newspeak, the spin and disguising of the truth and history, has helped disguise the inefficiency and corruption of the Bush administration. Let’s adopt a positive definition of the word politics. Let it embrace diplomacy, the skill of managing relations at both the domestic and international levels. Let it embrace scholarship, the academic study or achievements in government. Let it embrace philosophy, the nature of reality and existence. Paradoxically enough governance is a component of politics, so maybe electing governmental leaders through politics isn’t the most effective method of achieving leadership in a country. It is necessary, because we have chosen democracy as our form of government. Politics becomes necessary when the masses have to elect our leaders. From this process could have come the negative connotations of politics, because the process of electing our leaders has itself become corrupt. The Republican party, a corporate board, instead of inferring meaning from being a part of life, attempts to study it hypothetically. Instead of engaging in the political process philosophically, they engage it systematically coolly calculating each cultural faction of the American population devising a suitable and winning solution for themselves. Politics has become poker. The political system somehow under the negative influences of recent pop culture, has become gambling. This is because in a country with ADD, nature triumphs over nurture by substituting the immediacy and superficiality of tabloid media over tried and true philosophies. These philosophies have to be upheld and maintained in mainstream arenas other than academia. As mainstream America grows up they become more disconnected from academia leaving media responsible for carrying the torch of culture. That is media’s responsibility, not tabloid journalism. Media along with government has failed America in tandem abandoning the core philosophies of the United States Constitution. We no longer are free. We like so many other countries have fallen to the corrupt rule of militaristic dictator. It is just the process has been covert. At the inception of the Bush presidency the process was devious. Over time now it merely has been exposed as selfish and ignorant.