----- Original Message -----
From: Edwin Cooney
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2020 1:57 PM
Subject: balancing the free and the fair
Hello Everyone,
I don't know anyone who likes political commercials? Do you? All they are is
prefabricated insults designed to distort everything candidates and their
minions say and, even worse, believe about each other. Political commercials
contain even less constructive information these days than the typical beer
commercial. In fact, political commercials have become just as harmful to the
public than the old cigarette commercials.
It's time to find a constitutional way to balance freedom and responsibility.
One of the most misleading historical myths is that free men and women have
fought for their freedom. As true as that may be, free men and women have done
something even more important before firing a single musket!
I'll tell you what it is a few lines from here.
Warm Regards,
Me, E.C.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7th, 2020
BALANCING THE FREE AND THE FAIR!
Despite what you're about to read, I still like both politics and politicians.
However, everything in life must have its limits including political rhetoric!
Unfortunately, we've gotten ourselves into a national mindset that's anything
but constructive or patriotic. When we view every political philosophy that's
different from our own or any candidate we oppose as a criminal, we're setting
ourselves up for a national nervous breakdown! If there is such a thing as a
“National Nervous Breakdown” due to our national leadership's unwillingness to
accept the result of the election this November, the ultimate fault will be our
very own.
While I'm not sure that we have a "right" to be protected from political
annoyance, the fact of the matter is that we're suffering these days from
political, emotional, and intellectual abuse. Even more, it's pretty easy to
document that the public mind is being more than annoyed, it's being
deliberately and systematically poisoned just as the climate in which we live
is being polluted by carbons. Even worse, it too often seems that the word
"united" (a vital word) is being slowly but surely obliterated from who we
historically say we are.
It's becoming increasingly clear to me that we're well on the way to destroying
our own liberty. After all, if no two people of opposing points of view have
sufficient legitimacy to be trusted in public office, how can we have any
confidence in any political candidate’s capacity to govern once elected? What
the United States of America needs most desperately today has less to do with
"civil liberties" and more about "civilized liberty,” but how do we accomplish
that while preserving freedom of speech?
Of course, the nature of politics is confrontational! Our British and European
ancestors were invariably led by exceedingly rich and ambitious men and women
who contested one another for the right to rule on battlefields. Even our right
to self government was established by George Washington on battlefields between
Massachusetts and South Carolina between 1775 and 1781. Not until the adoption
of our own Constitution did party politics become the instrument for achieving
executive, legislative and judicial power in the United States — and, as we all
learned in school, George Washington warned in his "farewell message” in
September 1796 of the potential evils of party politics. Note that since the
retiring president suggested no substitution for political parties, all we're
left with are those parties.
Since the establishment of our federal system of elective government, we've
taken pride in our capacity to peacefully transfer power from party to party as
well as from president to president.
Of course, presidents have been exceedingly critical of one another from time
to time. Both John Adams, our second president, and John Quincy Adams, our
sixth president, refused to attend the inaugurations of Thomas Jefferson and
Andrew Jackson in 1800 and 1828 respectively. Thomas Jefferson considered
Andrew Jackson a dangerous man having observed Jackson from his vice
presidential chair when Jackson was briefly in the Senate representing
Tennessee in 1798. Andrew Jackson came to hate almost everything Quincy Adams
stood for, especially after 1824 in the wake of that "corrupt bargain" between
Adams and House Speaker Henry Clay that made Quincy Adams president and Clay
secretary of state after the 1824 election.
Herbert Hoover heartily disliked FDR following the 1932 election. Harry Truman
considered Richard Nixon a "damned liar” who often "...lied just to keep his
hand in." The 1952 presidential campaign made both Truman and Dwight
Eisenhower, who were once friendly, into bitter political opponents from then
on. Truman observed that “[Ike] doesn't know any more about politics than a pig
knows about Sunday!") Richard Nixon and Jack Kennedy (once friends of a sort)
came to dislike each other. Nixon was jealous of Kennedy's wealth and glamour
and Kennedy often insisted that Nixon had "no class!" Finally, according to
Thomas M. DeFrank's book "Write It When I'm gone,” Jerry Ford, who became
reconciled with Jimmy Carter, did so out of their mutual contempt for Ronald
Reagan. (Although he vigorously campaigned for Reagan in 1980, Ford never
forgave Reagan for challenging him for the GOP nomination in 1976.)
The above instances of political and even personal animosities pale in
significance to the cultural divide that is all too apparent between President
Trump and former Vice President Biden. Today our opponents aren't merely
dishonest or incompetent, they are criminals, traitors, and terrorists. I
assert this not from above the battle, for I, too, have little if any regard
whatsoever for one of the candidates and, as justifiable as I regard my
attitude as being, I hold it with considerable discomfort.
A few days ago, I read that Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook intends to block
political ads on his site one week before the November 3rd election. I think
that's an excellent idea, as this need for rhetorical responsibility
and accountability is an absolute must - considering where we're all headed!.
At the outset of this musing I observed that the "Sons of Liberty" who offered
us their lives, their fortunes, and their "sacred honor" did something vitally
important. Before they fought for freedom, they thought about freedom.
Now, that's our task!
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY
