What, Then, Is Duty?

In the last few years we've seen some historic shifts in the political landscape of the United States.  Beginning with Obama's rise to power, through the long-standing deeply corrupt political machinery of DC and the thuggery of the Chicago elites, followed by a counter-swell of genuine grass-roots opposition to his Marxist agenda in the TEA Party.

The TEA Party, however, is not an organized machine like the existing political parties and it has thus far defied definition.  The American left, in both parties, has worked to target the TEA Party for ridicule, and hatred, most recently by the thug, Hoffa, declaring war on them.  But it is ineffective because the TEA Party consists of the very people they are working to turn against the TEA Party.  So, essentially, they are telling me to be suspicious of me!  to avoid association with me!

It's stupid.  It's surreal.  It's politics today.  But I am now plagued with a different phenomenon on the political scene.  Many of us are openly displeased with the overspending and reckless taxation in DC.  But a manifestation of the reluctance of people to eject their own congressmen and senators from office--choosing, instead, to blame those other states--is our refusal to scrutinize our local politicians and their activities. 

We have been inundated with videos of "town hall" meetings where courageous individuals stand before a US Senator or Congressperson and "speak truth to power."  I agree, such actions are gutsy and brave and much needed in our time to reverse the downward slide of government toward tyranny.  But what about our local pols?  Are they really as full of virtue and goodness as we seem to assume?  Is it that, because they are literally our neighbors, we know more about them and are more willing to accept their shortcomings or errors in judgment or even a "little corruption" if it benefits us?

I learned a long time ago that, as much as "all politics is local," all real political power is local.  We view the Supreme Court, for example, as the "highest court in all the land," and are in awe of those justices who sit on high handing down their rulings on this case and that and we call them "powerful."  Yet consider the near absolute power of the local judge who, possibly in ignorance of Supreme Court rulings, determines a case on his/her own, ruling as he/she sees fit, right or wrong and that's the end of it.  Disputes of the ruling seldom, if ever, will be challenged in a higher court.

It is in the local arena where politics really touches our lives.  It is locally that we are more frequently impacted by the application of political power.  It is, for example, in mayoral races where people run specifically because they don't like the Chief of Police or their neighbor's dog crapping in their yard!  Once they win office and attack those few issues, they are left adrift in confusion as to how to carry on the more routine work of government.  All too frequently, they are then taken in hand my a more slimy, "experienced" politician who helps them decide on this issue or that and all too often that clueless new mayor or councilperson goes along, blissfully unaware of the damage being done.

It is in this arena, I believe, that a renewal of political engagement by the people is most desperately needed.  It is in this arena, where the "rubber meets the road" most profoundly--where the power of government and the State is in constant friction with the individual rights and liberties of free citizens.  It is here that the seeds of tyranny are planted and permitted to sprout and spread.  And spread they do, because it is from the base of local politics that the corrupt launch their state and national careers!

How can we demand honor, integrity and accountability in Washington when we countenance corruption, abuse of power, cowardice and incompetence at home?  I am reminded of the words of CS Lewis:  " We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and then bid the gelding be fruitful."  How can we make such chestless men without being such ourselves?  If we set ourselves on a course of compromise with corruption when and where, then, do we find a line that we will not cross?  I would suggest, that it is impossible to find that line, once we've allowed ourselves to be overrun by corruption.

I'm clearly not talking about perfection.  Surely we can all understand the difference between an attitude of "I've striven for an ideal and failed, but I will never stop trying because excellence is found in pursuit of perfection," and "Nobody's perfect, so why try?  Let's party!" 

I believe that, whether acknowledged or not, there is a war that rages in the hearts and souls of every man, woman and child.  It extends beyond politics, but it is manifest in our political machinations.  It is the on-going war of good versus evil in all of us.  And any compromise with evil leads only to more compromise and ultimately, to destruction.  Corrupt politicians have come to extol the virtues of compromise precisely because it allows them to pursue their own corruption unabated.  But, as Rush Limbaugh presciently observed yesterday, "Moderation [compromise] is a tactic.  It's not a set of principles.  It is a tactic that says, 'Regardless of the situation, regardless of events, my first impulse is to find a different way around.'" (Rush Limbaugh Program)

I recall the story of the 82nd Airborne as related to me by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (Ret.).  In the winter of 1944, the German army launched a surprise offensive that caught the allies off-guard.  The 82nd was called out of reserve and marched day and night for several days into the Ardennes Forest to meet the onslaught.  They were tasked with the mission of halting the German offensive.  They were under-equipped, did not have proper winter clothing and rations of food and ammo were short.   But they reached their appointed positions and dug in. 

On one occasion, a fleeing US tank was rumbling down a forest road in retreat--30 tons of armored death running headlong from what some believed was an overwhelming German advance.  A lone airborne trooper stepped from his foxhole into the road and raised his arm to stop the fleeing tank.  He was half-starved, had several days' growth of beard and a rifle slung over his shoulder.

The hatch opened and a tanker's head emerged.  The airborne trooper says, "Hey, buddy!  You lookin' for a safe place?"

"Yeah!" came the reply.

"Well, then get behind me.  I'm the 82nd Airborne and this is as far as the bastards are gonna get!"

With that thought in mind, let me share another observation of Col. Grossman's regarding the movie, Saving Private Ryan.  Most, if not all of us have seen that movie.

Recall that the unit selected to accompany Captain Miller in search of Private James Ryan was killed, one by one, during their search in the days immediately following the D-Day invasion.  At the conclusion, during a pitched battle, Captain Miller himself was mortally wounded and remember his last words to Private Ryan:  "Earn this!  EARN IT!"

What's the significance?  Captain Miller is every warrior and patriot down through the ages who has sacrificed their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor," to secure for us the liberties we've enjoyed.  Private Ryan, of course, represents each of us--the recipients of those countless, willing sacrifices, from Thermopylae, to Bunker Hill, to Antietam to Bull Run, to the Bulge, to Saipan and Iwo Jima, to Soyang and Saigon, to Kandahar and Baghdad and, of course, Calvary--who now must listen and hear the whispers of all those who willingly gave:  Earn this!  EARN IT!  

So, the question remains, what is our individual duty when we see even the beginnings of corruption in our political leaders?  We surely can't demand perfection, so where is that line we will not cross, nor permit them to cross?  Do we accept the creeping corruption with a shoulder-shrug and acknowledgment of human imperfection?  Do we shrink when personally attacked and vilified by the powerful?  Do we permit the "honorables" who aren't to dismiss us with a wave of the hand and declaration that we are "hateful" because we don't accept the party line, or because we possess the "audacity" to question them, their competence or their motives?  Can we stand before our Maker and those valiant souls who went before, paving the road to our liberty with their blood and tears if we cower before those who would make themselves our masters--those who demand that we compromise bit by bit until we no longer recognize our Republic?

It is my conviction that our Founders intended for the myriad factions that exist in a free society to vigorously and loudly advocate for their respective positions--that in that struggle lay the path to liberty.  They did not intend for us to find some amorphous "unity" in apathy toward corruption and dishonor in high places.  They wanted us to argue our positions endlessly--to persuade and debate--not to bury our heads in the daily pursuit of personal ease and comfort.  Compromise is a is a periodic tactical [very short-term] necessity, but compromise is not a core belief nor an objective!  The war over core principles must continue and efforts at persuasion must endure.  Otherwise, all is lost.