commentary by Michael L. Bromley
copyright 2005

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... of Politics

Jan 28/05: It comes down to this: you either think we're okay, or you think we're not. Whatever the great middle, the pros choose sides on this one, the one filling the glass, the other emptying it. Here's the latest from the half-empty school, Senator Harry Reid of gambling central:

Floor Statement of Senator Harry Reid on Democratic Agenda
The promise of America is a simple one. It's a promise that says if you work hard and play by the rules you can build a stronger, brighter future for you and your family. This promise has lived on for generations in this country, and it's one I have lived in my own life.

...America... today [is a] country whose founding promise is slipping further and further away from reality for too many American families. ... Why do we find ourselves in this state today? Why is the promise of America - that promise that led me to this great chamber – not still alive and well for all?

Really, I can't understand why the Republicans bothered to respond to this one, such a pathetic pander (Reid All About It: Harry Reid's Real "American Promise": Obstruction). I guess they have to, just as do I right here. It can't be left alone. Those inclined to pessimism speak of America's "promise," which translates to, "it ain't there yet," or worse, that it's a promise unkept. Yes, that's a political stance, just as Mr. Reid's wandering from "promise" to jobs to health care to social security, to, and get this:

First, we cannot fulfill the promise of America unless we keep our nation strong and safe. Senate Democrats are committed to strengthening America's security with bills that will make America stronger and more secure.

Democrats will ensure we target terrorists more effectively.

[Calling Karl Rove! Calling Karl Rove! Really, I thought the Dems had learned something from last November. Guess not. ]

The salesman must fill a want, so in that sense Reid is just reeling off a line. But there's something to it, this suggestion of a failed "promise." It's not just -- and it is, also -- political candy, telling the voters they've been let down. It's a political faith, one built upon the idea that things must and should be better, which rests entirely upon the idea that things are not as they ought.

In 1909, Herbert Croly, co-founder of The New Republic (see autos entry Jan. 19 for a Croly descendant), launched this stupid idea that America is but a "promise." Sadly, the most deft politico of them all, Theodore Roosevelt, yanked hold of Croly's "Promise of American Life," and went off to chasing those populist windmills such that ought make even a Harry Reid blush.  But it wouldn't, for Reid has gone as far Roosevelt, at least, and unto Croly. What did Reid say that Croly did not, in this, for example, from Croly's p. 461:

The salutary and formative democratic purpose consists in using the democratic organization for the joint benefit of individual distinction and social improvement

That's it! Society is made up of individuals only insofar as they combine for "joint benefit" of the each and general "social improvement" of the whole. If you buy that, your glass will be permanently half empty, much less half full.

Same crap, new time.
 

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