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This Time For Sure [1]

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Date: 2025-06-01

I’m adding photos from my last couple of days because the world is rather depressing, and natural beauty soothes.

Forest path Western Illinois

This Time for Sure

Another try to write a short essay on government and politics. An essay expressing every Americans’ shared vision, our core beliefs, the essential principles on which we all agree. Rocket J. Squirrel might say, “Again?” As Bullwinkle failed, I too must have the wrong hat. I thought we could all agree on government. Government is not politics. It is the part of society dedicated to the aspirations expressed in the preamble of the Constitution. Our efforts to improve the general welfare. Government should be for everyone, the level ground where the poor, disabled, wealthy, and middling all stand equal. All Americans expect a fair process of equal access without bribes, gratuities, or nefarious schemes. I believed we all valued a government free of graft. We have long had corruption in government, but when it is exposed people oppose it. People use the tools of government to end it. As citizens we may not be diligent in carrying out the reforms, but people support honest government. At least, that was my belief.

I now doubt people do seek an honest government. People seem first to assess whether the abuse benefits them, or if it might hurt the people they despise more than their side. We are awash not in principles but in transactional choices. Politics is often reported or spoken of as if it is a sports competition. This approach minimizes the consequence of policy choices, but does anticipate there will be another game. A schedule for a new kick off time to compete again. Many voices in our collective debate view themselves in a final conflict against enemies. Apocalypse rhetoric is now a more accurate characterization than sports talk. Voices, not only the insane ones leaking out of the cult’s brains, use the language of armageddon. Our opponents are categorized as demons, the result of losing is annihilation. The language is coarse (scum is prominent in the lexicon); civility is absent. I am eager for that sublime moment of schadenfreude when the most extreme, shrill, and obnoxious voices become aware of the evil they have spawned. Aware they are the very demons their frenzied shouts warned of. These moments will not occur; self-reflection and facts are not part of extremist reality. When the events prove them wrong, they adjust the tinfoil hat. In the last two days, I have seen the term scum directed at people on the right and the left. We have unified in some sense.

Peonies provide beauty every year for nearly one hundred years

There are extremes on both sides. Extremists are more alike than are the troops in their camps. Camps, as in their enemy camp and our camp of the brave. People of the mid twentieth century chose sides, the Communists or the Fascists. Some Americans following WWII were still apologists for Stalin. They ignored the evidence of the Soviet Union’s totalitarian crimes. They were still defending the Soviets as tanks rolled into Hungary in 1956. They earned the term tankies. Stalin created an intentional famine of mass starvation in Ukraine. Keep that in mind as our modern day tankies, (neo-tankies) attack Zelensky and absolve Putin. Extremists on both Right and Left seek justification never admitting they were wrong. As their arguments lose credibility, their shrillness increases. In spite of the push to choose a side, better Red than Dead, or America Love It or Leave It, the majority of Americans are pragmatists. Most people are trying to survive, make a life for their families.

Instinct teaches us to see our differences. We are trained to consider strangers as dangers. It is practical advice some people are dangers. The dangers are not always strangers. Somehow an innate human trait has been amplified cultivated by professional manipulators into a culture of madness. We have developed the ability to fear a stranger danger about people we don’t know, have never met, and will never interact with in any way. I still believe in the pragmatic majority. I believe we can unite in principle and the politics will muddle along.

I have created a list of pragmatic principles that I believe are common to all of us. The unusual times may be proving me wrong.

We believe all persons are created equal. Each of us has equal standing before the law. The right to liberty is strengthened through mutual respect. Government and those who serve in it are to do so for the common good. The highest interest is the public interest. Rule of law is superior to political power. Courts are to be impartial arbiters. Decisions must be based on factual evidence and testimony absent perjury. Due process, fair and public hearings, are the right of every person in America. America is an idea to form a more perfect union. We recognize our flaws and failings, but we strive towards justice. A society aspiring to provide for the general welfare of all its people.

There is a There is a Life in the forest that many fail to see

Power seekers try to control. At times they do bribe and control. We may desire to control. Yet, we are not in control. Even the richest and most powerful men, mostly men, are not in control. Are Musk, Trump, Gates, Buffet, Putin, or Xi in control? They have wealth and power but are not in control. The power in every society lies with the people. Power seekers try to dilute and keep control away from the people, but it resides in the people. Dictators seem all powerful but history has shown their demise can come quickly. The false actors are real threats to our daily lives, but they do not control us. Only if we give away our inner self, will we allow them to control us. When we ignore the fundamental values of the United States; we give away our control. We must align and stand in opposition to the powerful, if they violate the trust given them. When officials trample the law, basic rights, and do not preserve and defend American ideals, we must object.

We should make practical decisions in our daily life. Growing food, preparing it for our families, are essential choices. We must not be manipulated into believing some other group of people are not making the same practical choices. At our core all persons seek the same desire to live and work in a free society. We must reject the propaganda of the extremists. Our society is dedicated to the principle that each person live a life free of oppression. We must deny the manipulators the ability to manipulate us. We must remember our shared common values, and demand honest uncorrupt government. We will once again walk the road to a more perfect union. We must not leave anyone behind or deny others the opportunity to walk with us. We fail as a nation, if we are not pursuing our ideals.

On Substack at shiresteve.substack.com Son of Forgottonia

Friends on Substack

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