As The Beatles Once Sang - "Come Together"

George Bernard Shaw claimed that "democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve."

Once upon a time our country was founded upon the principles of consensus and compromise.  Sure, we built in the mechanics of simple majority vote and for larger issues we demanded a more involved process and larger percentage than a simple majority (like constitutional amendments.)  But still, we were more unified in our approach and held to the idea of a basic moral consensus and expected our political leaders to reflect and advance this consensus for the common good.  We don’t do that anymore.  In fact, I don’t believe we live in a society that has a moral consensus at all anymore.  So much of what we have become is a product of the 60s “if it feels good, do it” mentality of “me first.”  So compromise in our country becomes difficult.  As a result we do things like we just did in shutting down the federal government by not passing a budget.

Partisan politics rules the day rather than effective compromise and consensus decisions.  I, like many others, believe our lack of moral foundational beliefs is the root cause.  The democrats have their world view, the TEA party has theirs, and the rest of the GOP has its own beliefs.  They all use what power they have to try to achieve their goals without compromise.  When you get right down to it, they reflect the segment of people that elected them, and that is proof enough to me that our own society is lacking in a moral consensus.  We are broken as a country. 

We have a growing group of people in the country who even believe the government as a whole is a sham.  A mere act for the audience to watch, while real governance is hand picked and orchestrated by an illuminati of the rich and powerful.  While I think this is reductionist nonsense fostered by internet garbage, I do think it is a feature in our voting blocks (or actually non-voting blocks.)  Large parts of the populace then become totally unrepresented in the consensus process.

Before we can find leaders who are true “statesmen” who govern from a common moral viewpoint, we need to have that in the country as a whole.  If one party and segment of the population is committed to destroying babies and providing cradle to the grave care and support to all without expecting someone to make an effort in life…how can we possibly govern from the same moral viewpoint?  If another segment believes God is a useless fictional acachronism and elects their representative to be a “leader,” how can we ever reach consensus? If one party only favors the donors to their campaign, how can we ever reach consensus? 

We were formed as a nation of faith.  We need a basic moral base from which to be governed and to choose from to elect our leaders.  We no longer have that. The change must begin at the root of the problem…and that is…us!