Where Are The Adults?

I thought as we closed down 2022 it would result in a better year ahead. I guess it is in my nature to be a perennial optimist. Then came the election of 2022 with an abysmal result, for some, coupled with the childlike attempt to elect a new Speaker of the House, which continued to show us our hopes for the future have probably been dashed as a result of the juvenile actions on both sides.

I’m not sure that a sitcom writer could have made up a script so insanely absurd as the one we watched last week. Where were the adults in the room? 

The gentleman who will now lead the House of Representatives has about little to no chance of “leading,” during a time when leadership is paramount to the success of our nation as we attempt to right a ship without a captain. I sincerely hope I am wrong!

Our country has always been a nation which has exemplified the qualities of leadership that have shown the world community that we are worthy of their trust, and trust in strong leadership is what is needed in the world we live in today.

President Ronald Reagan was able to reach across the aisle to Democrats who shared the fiscally conservative leanings of his party to form a coalition of like-minded men and women who put the needs of the nation above that of the party. Yes, we may have deferred some on issues, but we did so in a manner which never embarrassed those men and women who came before and made the great sacrifices which would build the great foundation which has stood the test of time over the years.

The recent vote for the additional $1.7 trillion spending bill in December saw nine Republican House members and 18 Republican Senators break ranks and continue to try and spend our way out of the poor house. We cannot continue this insanity and must come to our senses. I would have hoped that after these last two years of failed fiscal policy that we may have started to come to our senses, however we have not.

So long as we lack the courage to look into the mirror and recognize we are the greatest threat to our future, then we will suffer the same fate that befalls any society which fails to subscribe to fiscal restraint and understand that we do not send men and women to the Congress of the United States to recklessly deal with the responsibility that we have entrusted to them. 

I wonder sometimes why the lack of restraint by the adults of today is the only lesson which is being proposed to this next generation which waits in the wings to assume the mantle of leadership which has historically been passed peacefully to them by their elders.

Some of these elders on both sides of the aisle have not set the best of examples for this next generation of leaders. Instead we have seen a terrible dereliction of their responsibility to govern in a fair and objective manner. In my opinion it continues to come back to a lack of leadership at all levels.

No one is without responsibility for that void in leadership from within our government, for it begins here with us. President Abraham Lincoln may have uttered the most salient words in any speech when he penned the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863.

“That these dead shall not have died in vain. That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that the government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” 

Of course he was referring to those citizens who gave their lives in the Civil War which ran between April 12, 1861 until April 9, 1865. However, those sacrifices by America’s finest can be totaled across all the many conflicts which have seen the sacrifices of those in the uniform of our nation.

He spoke those words from his heart, while recognizing that the legitimacy of our government did indeed spring from the men and women who have died to bring forth our great nation and the principals we stand for today.

I was disgusted with the actions of January 6 by a group of terribly misguided and disillusioned individuals that thought violence and a criminal assault on the laws and our capital were the right thing to do. Justice must be brought down upon them in a swift and judicious manner.

I have also been equally disappointed with criminal activity within the ranks of those that have raised their right hand and swore to defend the constitution of the United States and its laws. Some have apparently dishonored their badges and oaths while carrying out unlawful acts over the last five years to carry out political sabotage at the bequest of their political allies and superiors. They have yet to be brought to justice for their actions, as well as their superiors who have also dishonored their offices as they have committed high crimes and misdemeanors. 

We can ill afford to continue to drag our feet in dealing with this assault on our Democracy from within and must have the political will to deal with those at fault as we seek to deal with those.