Image via WikipediaJoe Biden: 'This is a big f*cking deal!'
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“'Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected,' observed President Obama this week, enjoying a nice chuckle about the unhappy fate of his near-$1 trillion stimulus. […] When the Republicans tried to do as promised, Democrats, lacking the votes, tried to block it by every extra-parliamentary maneuver short of arson. State Senate Democrats fled Wisconsin to prevent a quorum. Demonstrators filled the statehouse for days and nights on end. And when the bill finally passed nonetheless, Dane County’s Democratic district attorney went to court to have it thrown out on procedural grounds. They found a pliant judge to invalidate the law. A famous victory, but short-lived. On Tuesday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the ruling, upbraiding the judge for having 'usurped the legislative power which the Wisconsin Constitution grants exclusively to the legislature.' The law is reinstated. […] The Wisconsin maneuver ultimately failed, as likely will the assault on Boeing. In the interim, however, there is collateral damage — to U.S. exports, to the larger economy, to bankruptcy law, to free trade, to a constitutional system wherein the legislatures make the laws, rather than willful judges and partisan regulators.”
— Charles Krauthammer, June 16, 2011 (washingtonpost.com)
As Winston Churchill famously quipped, "Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried." Nevertheless, it wasn't then, nor is it now, perfect. And, to my way of thinking, among the worst offenders is partisan politics. And the reason partisan politics represents the fly in the ointment of our Republic is that people lose sight of their allegiance hierarchy.
Consciously or not, everyone in the civilized world pledges allegiance to an organizational hierarchy, at whose pinnacle they usually place themselves. As the Sage Hillel stated, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" Below the pinnacle, there are numerous organizations to which people acquire membership through birth or some form of naturalization procedure.
Some of the most obvious societal organizations are: family; ethnicity; race; religion; citizenship; state of residence; place of employment. Among the many optional memberships available to American citizens of legal age and a proven ability to read and write English is the electorate of the United States. And a subordinate option is the choice of a political party affiliation.
After one has convinced himself that he owes primary allegiance to his own life, one's remaining affiliations assume a hierarchical position beneath that pinnacle. Not everyone's pyramid is structured the same way. But I would argue that certain allegiances take precedence over certain others. For example, my allegiance to the Republic, for which the Flag of the United States of America stands, has always taken precedence over any allegiance I could have to any political party, especially since I have never chosen to join any party that would have me as its member.
This is as it should be. Sadly, when partisan animosity rages as it has in the past decade or so, many people would rather see the Republic as a whole suffer the consequences of their purely partisan actions, rather than recognize the superior position of their political opponents. And none more so than the partisan hack who swore the Presidential Oath of Office to protect the Constitution of the United States.
Post 1,659 On Pledges and Oaths
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