I saw a news analyst yesterday discussing the ongoing Republican presidential primary who was discussing the general lack of enthusiasm for this group of candidates, both within the party and across the country as a whole. None of these characters had sparked any real fires in the hearts and minds of the populace. The analyst admitted that he was a Democrat so he was somewhat pleased but he then made a point that really stood out for me.
He said this group of candidates’ lack of imagination and the ability to produce a single big idea were the most disturbing aspect of this whole fiasco. They had not given us, the citizenry of this country, anything that made us dream forward, made us want to rally behind them. They had not challenged us in any way, save for one feeble effort from a damaged and bitter Newt Gingrich who pandered to the Florida space community by proposing what I think amounted to senior citizen housing on Mars.
This lack of vision and imagination is not only bad news for the Republican party effort but is detrimental for the entire country. It allows the Democrats to not have to respond with an even bigger vision of their own, lets them run simply on a smaller scale, missing a grand opportunity to unite the citizenry behind the type of grand idea that might define us as a people. Think of JFK proposing the Peace Corps as a candidate in 1960 or his challenge to us to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Or FDR and the sweeping New Deal porposals of his 1932 campaign. Ideas that put our vision forward in a united way instead of focusing on the divided present.
I don’t see any of this group of clowns coming up with a grand vision of where they wish to steer this country. They offer the same old proposals of trickle down economics and tax cuts for the wealthy that have been a drag on this country for over 30 years. They offer no hope, no inspiration for betterment for anyone trapped in the lower classes of our society. They certainly don’t give us a vision of the future that unites us as a people, bound together by a single large goal.
I know that it may be asking too much for someone running for president but I wish they would come up with a single big idea. Perhaps I couldn’t get behind it but at least it might spur an even bigger and better idea that would excite me and millions of others to action.
And that would be something to see. Just imagine what we might accomplish…
Redtree Times 