I’ve started a few posts, but they’ve left me unenthusiastic so they remain unfinished and unsent. It’s not time I’ve lacked, but the necessary focus. My false starts have all wandered off into the deadly hinterlands of unoriginal political punditry.
David, as I know you occasionally reference family and this is election season, I'll offer this post as food for thought, though it's not a happy post.
I remember my father lamenting the election choices he had, often feeling he had to choose between the lesser of two evils. Now, more than a half century later, I'm in the same position with the same choices. All I want is a candidate who will outline his/her vision and plan for his/her tenure. Tell me, in affirmative terms, what I need to hear to win my vote, which means why I should vote FOR you and not AGAINST someone else. Tell me nothing about the opposition. Speak only in positive terms about problems and solutions and earn my vote if you can. Alas, I'm not hearing enough of that while I hear too much negativity.
I think the modern political process dissuades true leaders from stepping into the arena and we are left with true followers, who follow either their party or the polls in order to get elected so they can run for office as an incumbent from that point on, raking in money for direct personal gain and for reelection (another form of personal gain.)
For this reader, no explanation is necessary. I would rather have a very infrequent supply of good writing than a steady drumbeat of dreck.
Tom Pendergast expresses my thoughts well, with the addition that I am confident your new post will, in good time, enrich your writing.
Makes sense....
David, as I know you occasionally reference family and this is election season, I'll offer this post as food for thought, though it's not a happy post.
I remember my father lamenting the election choices he had, often feeling he had to choose between the lesser of two evils. Now, more than a half century later, I'm in the same position with the same choices. All I want is a candidate who will outline his/her vision and plan for his/her tenure. Tell me, in affirmative terms, what I need to hear to win my vote, which means why I should vote FOR you and not AGAINST someone else. Tell me nothing about the opposition. Speak only in positive terms about problems and solutions and earn my vote if you can. Alas, I'm not hearing enough of that while I hear too much negativity.
I think the modern political process dissuades true leaders from stepping into the arena and we are left with true followers, who follow either their party or the polls in order to get elected so they can run for office as an incumbent from that point on, raking in money for direct personal gain and for reelection (another form of personal gain.)
I sigh my father's sigh.