Fear and Politics

 

There's this:

 

Fear will be big in 2015, an insight no one has to pass along to Steve. The critical question is whether democracy will be even bigger?

 

And this:

 

But the intended or unintended impact of this proposal will be to cast a chill on every broadcast appearance in an era where scripted robots already dominate political discourse.

 

With the bottom line being, our political people aren't just in competition with each other, they are effectively at war.  Few partisans really want to be in verbal wars; they aren't prepared to sacrifice on behalf of their parties.  They don't believe in 'em that much.

 

Will we see less moderates, dissenters and critical thinkers in our politics?  What will the consequences of this be - or can we see that, already?

 

Which brings us to this:

 

“People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

 

We live in a democracy.  Out governments are supposed to be of the people, the common folk, not a class of their own.

 

See, when government ceases to reflect, or understand the grassroots realities of their constituencies, this is what happens.

 

Don't despair, though - there's more to the story than this.  But now is definitely the time to start paying attention.