Watch the unedited speech and Scott Pulley’s interview with Mitt Romney after he referenced the birth certificate question in his home state of Michigan.
Click THIS LINK for the clip from the speech and Mr. Romney’s interpretation of in the CBS interview.
Then share with other readers of “Views form he Edge” your comments. What do your eyes and ears tell you?
Ezra Klein offers his reflection on “Why Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge works — even among voters who support taxes.”
“Want to know why Republicans sign Grover Norquist’s Tax-Payer Protection Pledge? Because it helps them win elections. Want to know why the pledge isn’t broken more often? Because breaking it makes them likelier to lose elections — even among voters who support tax increases.
“Grover Norquist’s pledge works. Here’s how. (Joshua Roberts – Reuters) That, at least, is what a new study (pdf) by Stanford’s Michael Tomz and Berkeley’s Robert Van Houweling concludes.”
The recent study at Stanford may hold a key to how to fix the American campaign system. Here’s the line that caught my eye:
“[I]t’s very hard for a politician to find a political upside in breaking the pledge…”
Grover Norquist is onto something. According to the study, the ones who win are the ones who have taken the pledge. Americans respect candidates and elected officials who stand for something. Norquist’s pledge is the only one out there. Perhaps we need a new pledge to the American people. But where to start?
In the run up to November 2012, the political handlers have hit the delete button on an old Commandment. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” now reads “You shall bear false witness against your neighbor.” It’s the only way to get elected.
To “bear witness” is to testify to the truth. The rule of law depends upon it. When things are in dispute, witnesses are sworn in before they testify – bearing witness to what they saw, what they experienced, what they know to be true. In lesser matters where there might be mischief or misrepresentation, documents require the stamp of a notary public whose seal bears witness to (verifies) the document’s authenticity.
Perhaps campaign reform could learn from these practices and Grover Norquist’s Tax-Payer Protection Pledge.
It’s surreal and ultimately inadvisable, but imagine that in order for a candidate, a political party, or PAC to use the public airwaves for political advertising in this democratic republic, they would be required to appear before a judge to
“swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to the American people, so help me God.”
The American people’s electoral decisions depend on the integrity of the democratic process, part of which is the campaigns that elect candidates to public office. The public airwaves belong to the American people. No one goes on the air without taking the pledge of truthful witness.
When candidates, parties or campaign surrogates are charged and found guilty, they would lose their privilege of air time for a fixed period. They would again appear before the court to take the pledge that commits them to bear truthful witness to the American people
Such an idea is surreal, even to the point of being Orwellian – “Big Brother” censoring what goes over the state intercom. It will never happen.
But what if voters who care deeply about the integrity of the electoral process tear a page from Grover Norquist’s notebook by creating a pledge of our own?
“The Protect Democracy Pledge” would invite candidates to “swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” as a first step to gaining possible support. It would also require them to declare that they are not beholden to any other pledge but the oath of office to protect the Constitution of the United States of America. Like the Tax-Payer-Protection Pledge, signing The Protect Democracy Pledge to bear truthful witness would become the first step in earning a voter’s consideration for election to office.
Stranger things have happened. Look at Grover Norquist. His pledge works because candidates pledge to stand by it. Read Ezra Klein’s piece. Isn’t it time for a different kind of pledge that will allow candidates to stand for something: the protection of democracy itself?
President Bush and ordinary citizen
Former President George W. Bush was right there – standing on the corner on Main Street in Rapid City, South Dakota. Most people were ignoring him. He looked lonely standing there all by himself. So I walked over to strike up a conversation.It was the kind of conversation I’ve always wanted to have with George – one where he doesn’t get to talk back or cut me off. I asked questions and made my points. My questions were the same as in the story of the President’s visit to an elementary school. The story goes like this.
The President talks to the children and then opens the floor to questions.
One little boy puts up his hand and George asks him what his name is.
“Billy.”
“And what is your question, Billy?”
“I have three questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the U.N.? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? And third, whatever happened to Osama bin Laden?”
Just then the bell rings for recess. George assures the kiddies that they will continue after recess.
When they resume, George says, “OK, where were we? Oh! That’s right! –
Question time. So who has a question?”Another little boy puts up his hand. George points him out and asks him what his name is.
“Steve.”
“And what is your question, Steve?”
“I have five questions. First, why did the USA invade Iraq without the support of the U.N.? Second, why are you President when Al Gore got more votes? Third, whatever happened to Osama bin Laden? Fourth, why did the recess bell go off 20 minutes early? And Fifth, what the hell happened to Billy?”
All these years later, standing on the corner of Main Street with George W., I was prepared to ask Billy’s original three questions and a few others. I wanted to ask why his Party was blaming President Obama for what happened under his administration.
I never got to ask. as soon as I asked the question about Iraq, something strange happened.
I thought I saw a tear falling from his eye.
I pulled out a handkerchief and reached up to dry his tears. Only then did I realize: I hadn’t been talking with W. I’d been talking with his father, President George Herbert Walker Bush.
W is standing blocks away at the corner of 5th and St. Joseph, a thoughtful consideration for the older Bush, I thought, by the City Fathers of Rapid City. Here’s George, just like he was after declaring victory in the Iraq War: “Look at me, Dad, I finished the job for you!”
Mission Accomplished
by Gordon C. Stewart, “All Things Considered” guest commentary (MPR)
Aired August 20, 2012
Some days are brightened by a trip to the nursing home.
Take last Monday, for instance.
The members of the group that meets every Monday at 10 a.m. shuffle in on their walkers, or roll in, in their wheel chairs.
Ninety-seven-year-old Frances (not her real name; nor are the others to follow) walks in without assistance. Her 78-year-old son is dying of cancer. Another relative, 30 years younger than she, is next door in the memory care unit. “Good morning!” she says.
Georgana has been confined to a wheelchair all her life. But her mind is as sharp as her sense of humor. Gwen, who’ll be 90 this week, is coming to the end with hospice care. Pat, recently moved from Assisted Living to the Care Center, is in a wheelchair. All 12 of them smile and offer each other greetings: “Good morning!”
This morning I’ve watched too many campaign ads brought to my computer by Unedited Politics, a website that republishes campaign ads and political speeches without editorial comment. I’m all stirred up.
The 12 people from the nursing home have been drawn here by their desire for light. “Rejoice!” says the reading for the morning. “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation ….”
I ask: How do you rejoice in a nursing home? What is the secret of being content when your body and your mind don’t do what they once did?
Listening to their reflections reminds me of how small our footprint is on the larger world. They share my distress about the news, but their years have taught them to recognize light wherever it meets them and to relish the little things of daily life: a smile, a kind word, the cardinal and the squirrels playing outside their windows, a sense of inner peace, a strange contentment. I hope to be more like them — to pay more attention to the things that are beautiful, admirable and lovely.
While they shuffle out on their walkers and roll out in their wheelchairs, Frances, Georgana, Gwen, Pat and the rest of the ad hoc community at the nursing home thank me for coming and wish me a good week. They have lightened my step. I’ll still pay attention to the news, but I’ll listen and watch with a greater lightness of being.
Steve Shoemaker sent this Breath Prayer on March 24, 2012 during Holy Week based on Jesus’ word to another criminal hanging on the cross next to him. I waited until now to post it on Views from the Edge.
Prayers (breathing) – 8 syllables in (inhale); 8 out (exhale)
– Steve Shoemaker
Jesus Christ, Child of God, Savior: (teacher) Have mercy on me, your sister.
(brother). (on us your siblings.)
(Have mercy on me, a sinner.)
…
Gracious God, Jesus Christ, Spirit:
Give me (us) peace, patience, joy and love.
…
Loving God, you create, sustain:
give us dreams, energy and skill.
…
Holy Spirit, Comforter, Fire:
Mold us, move us, keep us alive.
…
Mysterious Divinity:
Show us what we can know and do.
…
We have left the path, lost our way:
Forgive us, O God; set us straight.
…
Your grace and love surround us, God:
Help us be grateful, loving, kind.
…
Our life will soon be over, God:
Remember us in paradise…
I waited until now to share this prayer. It strikes me as an antidote to the onslaught of misery and hate during this campaign season. Breathing Prayer calms my soul, slows down my whirring mind, and brings it down into the heart. The ancient practices of Breath Prayer and Lectio Divina move me into the great Stillness at “the still point of the turning world”… where the dance is.
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither
from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest
nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered.
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the
point, the still point,There would be no dance, and there is only the
dance.
– T.S. Eliot, 1888-1965), The Four Quartets.
For more on Breath Prayer and the variety of prayer in the Christian tradition, click on this link: Ten Ways to Pray: A Short Guide to a Long History of Talking with God.
Click During campaign season, maintaining serenity is a good trick to read last Friday’s guest commentary published by MPR. The commentary will also air on All Things Considered, “the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country”.
Children playing Capture the Flag
Long before I got hooked on Facebook, my childhood friends and I used to play outside until it got dark. Capture the Flag was our favorite game.If you had the flag, your job was to keep it; if you didn’t, your job was to capture it. Only one person had the flag; the rest of us worked together until one of us got it. And when one of us did, the game started over again.
Even if you hadn’t captured the flag that night, you went home knowing that tomorrow you had another chance. Nothing was forever in the game of Capture the Flag.
We were learning how the game of democracy is played. We were learning how to win and how to lose. We were learning the importance of continuing to play the game because no one knew how things would turn out the next night before our Moms called us home at bedtime.
All these years later, we’re playing Capture the Flag on Facebook. Some of us are Democrats. Some are Republicans. Some are Libertarians. Some are Socialists. Some of us are Cynics who’ve decided that the game is stacked and that no matter how hard they try to capture the flag for what they believe in, the same bullies always win.
When we played the game as kids, there was a nearly level playing field. The slowest of us had less of a chance than the fastest, but even the slowest and the smallest had a shot, if we worked together to capture the flag.
It’s not that different now, except that the bullies have money the rest of us don’t have. They’ve also learned how to divert our attention. Well-funded mind-bending scare tactics seek to convince voters that the flag has actually been in our pocket and that we, not they, are losing control of our country if health care reform, action on climate change, and reigning in Wall Street are the results of the November election.
Protest sign: U.S. Chamber of Commerce
It’s time to go out to the backyard and play the game again. Time to stand up together to reign in Wall Street and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and to tell our friends in the Tea Party that deregulated, laissez-faire capitalism will serve only the fittest, not the many. Time to snatch the Stars and Stripes out of the deep pocket of the bullies who paint themselves as America’s last, best hope. No one gets to keep the flag in the United States of America.
Yesterday Unedited Politics re-posted this video of a would-be president.
It led me to this post of the President Obama handling a heckling reporter at the White House.
Now that you’ve seen them, notice the difference in the summary headings over the two videos. “Mitt Romney heckled by.…” focuses only the heckler, not on the candidate’s response. It evokes sympathy for Mr. Romney. “President scolds reporter….” elicits sympathy for the heckler. Language frames perception.
But the video-tapes tell a different story, no matter what the words say. The tapes tell the story of the character and style of Mr. Romney and the President and the way they handle a rude opponent.
How do you describe the difference? What qualities of character and style do you want in the Oval Office next January? Leave your comment here.
Remember this?
George W. Bush – battleship USS Abraham Lincoln: “Mission Accomplished!”
Now we have copycats:
Romney, Ryan, and the U.S.S. Wisconsin
But we will always have this:
This hour of history – The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Take your pick.
“Romney announced his selection in dramatic fashion Saturday morning, with each
man stepping down the deck of the USS Wisconsin — a World War II-era battle ship
named for Ryan’s home state — to the soundtrack of the movie ‘Air Force One.’
– Washington Post
Romney, Ryan, and the U.S.S. Wisconsin
World War II? A battleship? Doesn’t that say it all? “Air Force One” – a film about a President who defeats a terrorist (Obama, perhaps?). Makes a grown man want to cry!
Views from the Edge 