Politics and Perception

by David W. Andersen

Someone once told me that 'Perception is Reality', in other words if I perceive you to be a certain way then my thoughts will go that way and ultimately my opinion becomes that way. My reality, as flawed as it may be, is definitely formed from my perceptions.

Don't confuse perception with judgement. Judgement 'uses' perception to categorize people and apply your principles to their perceived behavior, to form an unrealistic case for or against them. This is probably why Jesus told us not to judge one another.

So I was listening to a real Democrat (the kind of Democrat that was around in my parents day) on television tonight. He made a real good point. That it's not about winning or losing in party politics, rather it's about a kind of iron-sharpening-iron effect that leads to good pragmatic laws being past with the public interest always at the forefront. He was lamenting that this has not been the case with the Obama administration or the Pelosi/Reid Congress. He also blames Republicans and I must say I agree.

I remembered how I felt post 9-11 when both parties worked together to make sense of the attack on the Towers in NYC. I remember how no one was 'grabbing' the lime light and trying to paint the other party in a negative light or minimize their accomplishments. I remember seeing CSPAN coverage of debates and hearing both sides making sensible arguments.. I remember thinking how glad I was that we had such good people in our government.

...and then about 18 months away from 2004 elections, in a concerted Democrat and Media effort, I remember how shocked I was to hear those same democrats say the opposite of what they had been saying 2 years prior. It made me feel sick. I realized that this is what elections had come down to. The Republicans responded in like manner along with Sean Hannity and others.. nit picking, mis-characterizing and again it came down to who was right and who would win.

Then I look at the Tea Party movement in our country. Whether you like it or not, it is a large population of our country that is unhappy with our representation. This group alone is controversial because they don't reflect the sentiments of everyone, or are 'perceived' and 'Judged' to be a certain type of people. But the worst thing is that those in 'Power', i.e. our elected officials want to cast them as fringe kooks carrying silly signs that can't be taken seriously. Why? Because they are wanting our nation to go back to its roots and core beliefs of the constitution. Our Government officials enjoy way more power than the constitution affords and ultimately when another conservative is back in office, government will shrink, mandates and entitlements at taxpayers expense will cease, and we will get back to the work of rebuilding the greatest nation ever conceived on this planet and in Human History.

This Government spending and takeover of companies and health care has sparked alot of debate and it has unintentionally done something that neither party is thrilled about.. It has exposed and awakened a large population of 'regular citizens' to the corruptions and elitism that exists in our congress. This is bad for every sitting congress person and senator because the over reaction in 2010 is to vote them all out. That would be unfortunate, but the lesson here to all public officials is this: "You must govern in a transparent way that represents those you represent or you will have a very short political life"

Having said all of this, I believe that the reason no other nation affords it's citizens the rights we enjoy is that they don't 'trust' the people to do the right thing. This is universally true, mob rule gave us lynchings and the like.. bad mob. But no other nation has a revered document that restrains both the people and the politicians like the Constitution of these United States. The elitist progressives say "hey we are arrogant to think that such a young country could have gotten right, we need to take our cues from European nations:" But let's not forget that those who formed this document took into account the thousands of years of abuse and failure that led to the conditions in England and other European countries, to be the way they were.

In effect, we were the beneficiaries of thousands of years of trying different methods. Bottom line, without the Constitution and 3 pronged government, we would have fallen long ago. So it is my perception today that we need to all agree on this document, try not to radically change or abolish it, and look for ways we can work together to make our government spend less and work better for it's Citizens.

What do you think?