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February 8, 2007
I am Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
I know what your thinking, "No Jamison, you are Jamison. Dear God he's slipped completely off the deep end." Bear with me for a moment, I promise I will make sense in a little bit. First, why did this thought come into my head. I was in my fourth meeting of the day on Thursday, I'd been in one meeting or another for 5 hours at that point doing planning of one sort or another for either work or politics. So my brain was a little bit tired at that point and I was asked what I would have normally treated as a rhetorical question, what are your political ambitions. My answer is always the same, None. But my exhausted brain suddenly connected two pieces of data that had alluded me completely up until that point. Now for a quick history lesson for those of you that went to an American educational institution.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman dictator, appointed by the Senate after the current dictator of Rome and the entire Roman army had been captured by one of the barbaric tribes. Lucius was a farmer and who as the story goes was plowing in his field when he was informed that he had been given absolute authority over the Roman people to ensure the safety of the Republic for six months. He knew that leaving his crops untended could lead to hardship for his family, but he answered the higher calling and set about to defend Rome from her enemies. What makes him impressive is that it only took him 16 days to defeat the enemies of Rome, at which time he yielded all the authority he had been given back to the Senate and went back to tend his fields.
Which brings us back to the modern day and why I cause the radical right wingnuts heartburn. None of them seem to know that I have no long term political ambition, this is not what I want to do with my life. I don't stay awake at night plotting my next chance to grab power and move up the chain. I personally despise politics, it's dirty work and by all measures beneath me. I was asked to defend my country from a evil cancer that has descended upon it. Like my father before me, I left my life of quiet solitude and went to do battle with the enemies of the Republic. For me this is all the simple exercise of morality, I fight the bad guys because I have too. But for the radicals it's a baffling thing, because I don't hold back and don't triangulate like Democratic politicians. Mainly it's because I'm not one. I don't have to talk in half measures because I don't have to make it back to the "center" for election day. Trust me, I'm equally despised by the Establishment Democrats as I am by the radical extremists that make up the Republican party. It's because I lack the moral relativism that defines both of them. Right and wrong are easy for me to distinguish, just like it is for most Americans that aren't politicians. It doesn't profit me to have my beliefs change with the wind, because then I wouldn't believe in anything at all. In the market place of ideas, I have no fear that my stands on any issue would make it impossible for most Americans to call me a fellow citizen. In the end, America is about pleasing 50% +1 voter, I could care less about pleasing extremists on either side of the aisle, I'd rather stand with the American people and preserve the Republic.
So for those that spend their nights fretting about why can't he just give up and become a cowardly politician, I have to tell you it's not in my DNA. I'm a soldier, I fight, it's just all I do, it's all I know how to do. Moral certainty is an offensive thing to those without it, and for that all I can do is apologize that you are deficient. But even if I were the last American left on the planet, I would still gravitate back towards the principals of our founding in a world of total chaos, because it's just who I am. No amount of money or time can change that reality, and believing otherwise is a fool errand at best and jousting with windmills at worst. I believe Theodore Roosevelt said it best "If a man does not have an ideal and try to live up to it, then he becomes a mean, base and sordid creature, no matter how successful." I think our friends on the radical right have confused power for principal and have confused what's good for themselves and what good for the Republic. America was founded as a liberal democracy, crazy liberal ideas like one man, one vote are written into the constitution. We stood up to kings, monopolies, and dictators to build this great country and we will not be abandoning those principals anytime soon no matter what the radical right wants us to do. America has stumbled from time to time through out her history giving in to our baser fears and desires, but we've always stood back up and stood for something again. The rise of the radical Conservative movement is no different a stumble.
In the end, I will be the best American I can be. I strongly believe that living by the principals that made this country great, will lead us back to greatness. I'm confident that the people of America, want to get back to our greatness. And despite the GOP's continuous assertions to the contrary, I'm confident that the American people will know the difference between rhetoric and ideology. I will be Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus and stand by my nation even when all others seek to abandon it.
Posted by Jamison at February 8, 2007 10:38 AM
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Comments
Jamison, that was well put and I couldn't agree more.
I just want to say that anyone who sides with Bush and the Republican party as we are seeing it today are vile. They are totally deluded and vile. After all of the lies we have been told by this administration I just can't respect anyone who sides with Bush and the neocon wing of the Republican party. Before Hurricane Katrina I could maybe have a semi-adult discussion with them. But after witnessing Bush's behavior during the Katrina Fiasco I don't know how anyone with any sense of moral decency can side with that man. Anyone who thinks Bush and the Republican congress is doing anything but failing this country is just seriously deluded and I have absolutely no respect for them.
Sorry to get on my soapbox. I did a little prowling around on the web over the weekend and found myself on some neocon blogger's sites and was just seriously digusted to the core.
You and Dianne are doing good work over here. Keep it up! :)
Posted by: Moni at February 13, 2007 3:32 PM