Evan Bayh and what it means about politics

Evan Bayh, a favorite American politician of mine, warts and all, is right, in the broadest terms, in this interview.



And the fact that men like Evan Bayh believe, rightly in many instances, that leaving Congress will help more people than staying in is exactly what's wrong with American politics, right now. Because it means decent men like Evan Bayh, a better representative of middle America than most of his Senate colleagues by far, get strong-armed out of a process that is running on the fumes of cynicism and manipulation, right now.

That's exactly what Montesquieu and Madison labored so hard to check with their ideas and with the construction of the American Constitution.

But checking it only goes so far. Which is what ideologues perpetually exploit. And which is what has so seriously undermined the confidence of Americans in their government, to this point.

I doubt you will ever hear an ideologue take responsibility for this fact. That their manipulations and machinations is what has undermined confidence in the American government for those functions that only government can perform.

But they are responsible. Whether they want to acknowledge that or not.

It will be corrected. It will take time.

And having Evan Bayh leave the Senate is not a bad way to make some headway in this direction, given current circumstances.

What Evan says in this interview is exactly what Americans need to hear, right now. Those ideologues who tell you that only they know what is best for you, even against your will, are not honestly concerned with your welfare, long tern. And that message undermines what will be best for you, in the bigger picture.

Which is taking responsibility for your own life, no matter what anyone else, including American political leaders, tell you different.

There is no ideology or political party or religion or group of any kind that can live your life for you. And the only people who can solve the vast majority of your problems, and America's problems, are you. Americans. No matter what American politicians do.

And anyone who tells you different is shortsighted, at best, and seriously dishonest, at worst.

And selling you a bill of goods.

Don't buy it. Because it just isn't true.

If we really want our problems, as Americans and as people, really resolved, rather than appearing to be or perceived to be resolved, we will have to look to ourselves and to one another. Period. Government is generally the cop-out that allows us to pretend otherwise. For awhile. Until times like now, where it is clearly failing.

The message of government and political activists in the last 10 years, "Fear us, or suffer our wrath," is a far cry from the sentiments of Franklin Roosevelt in those words in his first inaugural, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

There is a reason why Roosevelt's words inspired. The same reason why the last 10 years have undermined our self-confidence.

Because one message is meant to uplift. And the other is meant to cower.

And the decision Americans are making today is, "Are we a country that needs inspiration and to have more honest self-governance over our own lives? Or are they a country who needs cowering."

Choose wisely, this election.

Choose wisely, for your lifetime.

That goes for me, too. More than most.