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Zonie63 -> RE: New Year politics or political wishes, desires, or predictions! (12/31/2014 7:44:29 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Marini
I have many other wishes and desires, but I am curious to see what other people will say.
Political wishes, desires or predictions, anyone?
Happy New Year to Everyone!
In the area of foreign policy, it would be desirable if the powers that be would leave behind their Cold War era thinking. It won't change the world, but it will change our perception of it, which will allow us to formulate a more coherent foreign policy.
That's part of the problem that we face: Too many people seem to want to cling to and live in the past, which has made us ill-equipped to face the future. (And when I say "the past," I refer to an imagined, mythic past, not the actual historical reality.) We need to move forward and eschew all those sacred cows which hold us back, keep us from progressing, allowing other countries to overtake and surpass us in many key areas. We need to avoid the arrogant, excessively proud, overconfident attitude which only serves to compel us to sit back and rest on our laurels. We need to avoid intransigent and inflexible thinking brought on by unreasonable adherence to tradition, ideology, and our ways of doing things because "this is the way we've always done it."
We need to look to take a good, hard, honest look at ourselves - who we are, where we've been, where we're going, and how we're going to get there - as well as a good, honest look at the world around us and our overall role in the world. That's what seems to be missing in the public debate overall on any number of issues.
We just seem to live from crisis to crisis, viewing them as separate, disconnected, and completely random events, while few people actually try to sit down and try to figure out just what in the hell is going on in this country and in the world as a whole. Our adversarial political/legal system is designed so that winning the argument and/or winning the election becomes the primary focus. "Winning is everything," even if it doesn't really change anything or make the country any better.
I think that mentality has led to a lot of the factionalism and entrenchment which seems to be the norm in politics. While that's generally always the case in politics, there have been notable times throughout our history when different factions have been able to compromise and focus on the greater good of the country. So, maybe that's one hope or wish I have for the coming year. I wish the politicians and others at that level would just stop the political posturing, all the ideological grandstanding, and all their other puffed-up, self-serving bullshit - and get back to the business of running the country.
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