I used to love my Sunday morning news programs, all the politics and all the rhetoric. But I’ve been exhausted by them ever since Tim Russert died. Every once in a while, however, a guest comes on a show like This Week and makes it very clear – without actually saying it – what the problem really is:
He acquits himself admirably, but its what everybody else around him is saying that’s the real problem. For some reason, unless populist energy is focused on the business of raising funds for millionaire candidates for the Senate and Presidency, nobody on the set knows exactly what its all supposed to mean. In fact, a movement is not considered “mature” unless it does what the Tea Party has done: sold out to a political party that ultimately betrays them.
Democracy is the cornerstone of our freedom, you can read that anywhere. Participation is the lynchpin of democracy. Again, I’m sure there’s a calendar in your local autobody shop that says something very near that.
But that doesn’t mean involvement in the political machines that drive our elections is required. Let the politicians figure out what the protesters mean all on their own. Why is anybody required to make donations and pledge to vote for a single party?
