That’s how long before we can end The Blame Game of Politics. Before dark has settled on the evening of November 2, the pundits will have told us how the elections turned out and what “lessons” have been learned. Don’t hold your breath on anything of substance having been changed.
I suspect all of us are exhausted by the claims of both parties that they and they alone have the solution to all the problems. The other party is to blame for all the ills that beset us . . . that goes without saying . . . although hundreds of millions of dollars have been expended on saying it, ad nauseam. I suppose one of the most discouraging aspects is that many of us don’t think beyond the most superficial of responses, be they democrat or republican. Most of us hear what confirms our own beliefs and unfortunately that is often not the important message.
There is one thing that no one is telling: The truth. There’s good reason for that. The truth will assure any candidate defeat. It’s so much easier to blame the other side for the economic collapse and the slow recovery, for the failures of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, high unemployment, and everything else that is wrong. The assumption (for which there is no proof) is that had things been done another way then all would be well. One can find plenty of commentators who will argue both sides of that case, each with a certitude that defies credulity.
Recently, I gave a presentation to a dinner group on the life of Winston Churchill. It would be a mistake to suggest that the United States political system mirrors the British in more than superficial ways. Equally, it would be incorrect to assume that we can learn nothing from them.
In the 1930s the creed of the British was one of pacifism and who can blame them? The horrors of World War I were still fresh in their minds. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin and his successor, Neville Chamberlain, have taken more than their share of blame for being slow to recognize the dangers of The Third Reich. Churchill alone was the first to sound the alarm and history proved him right. The surprising thing about his rise to Prime Minister is that he told the truth and it was a truth that no one wanted to hear: There would be war, it would be long and horrible, but the British would never surrender, not as long as there was a single man or woman left standing in England.
One wonders, if the Prime Minister were elected by popular vote rather than by the majority party in the House of Commons, whether Churchill would have ever led them through the Battle of Britain and the Blitzkrieg. The blunt truth . . . and it was very blunt . . . that he told them would certainly give the average voter pause.
We face a similar situation today. Our nation is not about to be overrun by a foreign power. The threat of nuclear war, so real a generation ago, has lessened considerably, but the way of life we have enjoyed for the last half century is unsustainable. We want goods and services to improve, we want full employment and reduced taxes, we want a stable government that doesn’t control our lives, we want no wars, and we want the national debt to go away.
To believe that any of those goals are achievable without huge sacrifice is to believe in a national tooth fairy. Whoever wins the election, it will not be because that truth has been told but because we have chosen someone who tells us what we want to hear. Sooner or later, the bitter truth will be applied and the longer it is put off, the more unpleasant it will be.
Churchill, along with a lot of help from the United States, saved Britain by telling them the truth in 1938. The thanks of the British people as soon as the war was over was to turn his party out of office. His replacement, Clement Atlee, told the people what they wanted to hear, and Britain has never been the same since their finest hour.
We should remember that on November 2 and look for those who tell the truth, unpleasant though it will be. So far, I haven’t heard any. The platitudes of politics may win the day, but change is coming and we’re not going to like it.
By Hayden Hollingsworth [email protected]