Bill Clinton Speaks Against Polarizing, Gambles Against Own Past
Former President Bill Clinton gave a speech today at the National Governors' Association meeting denouncing the polarizing of communities and the electorate, without acknowledging the primary role played by his administration in creating the conditions against which he spoke.
Clinton observed that a growing divide between American views has translated to geographical separations of ideology, and that the spirit of acceptance he found in two Democratic Presidential candidates which included one black man and one woman was threatened by communities shutting out those with differing politics.
He cited evidence that indicated voters in the last Presidential election supported a candidate by more than 20% of the vote in almost half of the nation's counties, a figure up from 20% in the 1976 Ford-Carter election.
Still, Clinton did not address the role that his personal mistakes, and imperious and arrogant attempts to lie and deceive regarding this missteps, that led to the widening of the partisan gap in the country. Both Clinton and George Bush have seemed unable to embody the middle-of-the-road position the countries yearns to see.
As special interest groups and one-issue voters dominate the party primaries, candidates are bound to be chosen by groups more radical than the average voter. While the central issues have been debated in one form or another since the days of Jefferson and Hamilton, the argument has grown increasingly vitriolic.
The split between red and blue states seems implacable; yet the truth is that the majority of the population does not wish this chasm to continue. Both candidates this year were chosen largely in contrast to opponents within their parties that had shriller, more radicalized views.
Voters would respect and flock to candidates that could promise a smaller, less bureaucratic, more efficient government, with a balanced budget and intentions on letting communities edecide their own standards, within the framework of freedom as guaranteed by the Constitution.
Dysfunctional programs, such as expensive, ineffective bans against gambling, or entitlement programs run like pyramid schemes, or welfare systems that create populations unable to care for themselves, could be curtailed, eliminated, and replaced.
John McCain and Barack Obama have both become stars of hope by expressing sentiments like these; hopefully the radical factions in their parties will not force the polarization to continue, and the candidates can remain true to themselves, giving us the best two choices in many years.
