“When the itch is inside the boot, scratching outside
provides little consolation.”

Chinese Proverb

 

 

It’s hard to figure what Americans want. I’m not sure most of them even know. Jerry Seinfeld joked about how men watch TV; in describing their perpetual channel surfing behavior, he explained that men don’t care what’s on TV, they only care what else is on TV. We have come to that place with our government. We don’t care what we’ve had, what we have… we only wonder what else we could try that might be, well, something new. It doesn’t matter if it’s a better idea, just if it’s a different idea.

…“Here’s a thought, let’s put Sarah Palin in for VP!”… “Hey let’s put a black guy in for leader of the free world, we never had a black guy… his politics don’t matter!” … “Let’s get a bunch of Tea Party kooks to run, doesn’t matter how stupid”… “Isn’t it time we had a woman for President? Hillary will do, never mind her baggage!”… “Hey did you hear what Trump said… let’s make him President!” …” No, Democratic Socialism, it’s different!”

One almost dare not ask what’s coming next. Now I have nothing against having a conservative woman for Vice President, even one that’s a little bit red-neck, nothing against a black president, I like Tea Party candidates, and maybe it is time we had a woman for President. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with going outside the world of politics to elect our leaders, and– well, no, not socialism, I can’t go that far!… but I have nothing against old jewish guys! That being said, there’s more to a good idea than just being different.

For over 200 years the US was the envy of the world. The combination of freedom and opportunity was a magnet to immigrants, and the system of checks and balances integral to our Constitution seemed to have provided this nation with as perfect a marriage between a people and it’s government as has ever existed throughout history. Ah, but even perfect marriages sometimes falter! One spouse becomes unresponsive and the other becomes unhappy. Someone’s eye starts to wander, and then their heart. Where commitment, communication, and a little counseling might have gotten them over the rough patch, they blame each other, and soon the only answer to the unhappiness seems to be to “see what else is on”. But seeing what else is on won’t ultimately bring happiness anymore than scratching the outside of the boot will assuage the itch on the inside. The unhappiness is on the inside. Likewise, arbitrary changes to the system of government that made the US the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth, will not make us a better country, the problem is on the inside. We like to focus our dissatisfaction on things outside ourselves. In a faltering marriage we pretend we were never in love. In a faltering nation we pretend we were never something special, or at least that we aren’t now. And so we tear ourselves apart; we condemn what we once extolled; we humanize our heroes, and then we demonize them. And when we have brought the exalted low, that gives us permission to throw it all away.

And so, as we rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic, we might be better advised to look for the lifeboats. Social media is replete with jokes about wondering where the real candidates for President are, as if it were not we the people who came up with this bunch. We like to have heroes, even when they are not very heroic, and even more we like to have villains, who we transform into Satans; but the truly disturbing question is, what kind of people choose these kinds of heroes? What kind of majorities choose these kinds of villains? When did we begin to celebrate crudeness as candor? When did we redefine dishonesty as sophistication? When did bullying become a virtue? When did we decide it might be reasonable to abandon the economic engine that made us the richest nation in the world, to follow the advice of a 74 year old who’s never had a real job, and say, “what the heck, why not socialism… might be worth a shot!” You can tell a lot about people by the heroes that they worship. Flawed people prefer flawed heroes; we create our gods in our own image, so that we can feel more comfortable with our own low standards. We banish our idealized gods to mythology, and superheroes to the movies; our true leaders, our real idols look a lot like us, and we prefer it that way.

IMHO: We never like to blame ourselves. If we can’t find a way to blame someone else, our last resort is to blame our past selves. When a marriage gets rocky we’ll start by blaming our spouse. If that doesn’t fly we’ll blame our past self, “I made the wrong choice, this was never my destiny, I was never really in love…”. Rarer than Diogenes’ honest man is the individual who won’t shift the blame to another person, or even a past tense of themselves. How often have you heard someone own the blame entirely and admit that the only thing wrong with their marriage is that they’re not doing it right? With such an attitude comes responsibility, and with responsibility comes work. When it comes to relationships we are mostly all lazy, and rather than do the work we’d rather cast our lot to the wind and hope fate will send us something less demanding.
There’s nothing wrong with our system of government. It was a miracle when it was designed, and it remains miraculous; we’re just not doing it right. Burning down the house instead of fixing it will leave us all homeless, and entertaining a bevy of political oddities in the hopes that one will be the magic elixir that fixes everything is folly, and a scratching of the outside of the boot. All the lies, the bickering, the name calling, the finger pointing, the hatred… all signal that we have given up on the work it would take to be a virtuous people who would produce a virtuous government. We opt for something less; we opt for domination, we opt for winning at all costs; liberty we have found to be too laborious, so we consign ourselves to the ease of tyranny.
The salvation of a troubled nation is not magical, and we vainly search for a magician to scratch our itch. As with marriage, healing comes from love. Love for our heritage, even with the mistakes we’ve made. Love for the land, love for the people, love for our destiny and the goodness we have brought to the earth. We can shed a tear for our sins, and repentance is a powerful force, but self-loathing is only suicidal. Perhaps after 240 years the miraculous has grown tedious, and we no longer see the wonder; but we have something here worth saving. It’s not popular to say it anymore, but I love America.

 

 
“…My native country, thee.
Land of the noble free.
Thy name I love.
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture fills
Like that above.”

My Country Tis of Thee