My good friend Sheldon Richman over at the Future of Freedom Foundation has a great little article that captures both the nature of politics and the essence of government. As usual Sheldon says a great deal in a very few words. Here’s a snip:
When [Joseph] Biden was running for president, he said of Obama, ?Right now I don?t believe he is [ready to be president]. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.? Now he says Obama is ?a wise leader. A leader ? a leader who can deliver. A leader who can deliver the change we need.? Well, that?s politics…
Hillary Clinton?tried to frighten us with the thought that he?d [Obama] be the one to answer the ringing red White House phone at 3 a.m. Now she thinks otherwise: ?When Barack Obama is in the White House, he?ll revitalize our economy, defend the working people of America, and meet the global challenges of our times?? Well, that?s politics?
Former president, Bill Clinton, declared at the convention, ?Barack Obama is ready to be president of the United States.? Yet just a couple of weeks ago?he said no one was prepared to be president. He neglected to mention that when his wife was in the race. Well, that?s politics.
George Orwell, who understood the nature of politics like no one else, defined ?doublethink? in his novel 1984 as ?the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one?s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them…. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed….? Everyone knows that Obama has now been declared both unqualified and qualified for the presidency by at least three prominent leaders of his own party. But by the grace of doublethink, we need not be troubled by this contradiction. Well, that is politics.
You can find the entire article here.
