Do unto others

What was that that just happened? We’re referring to the
election results from Tuesday’s California General Election, all
the local races, and the national mid-term referendum on The
Democratic Majority and the Obama Adminstration. Millions of votes
and millions of messages, all vulnerable to post-election analysis
and twisting, with none of them offering much clarity or
summary.
Better we should forget all the “day after” analysis and teeth
gnashing. Let’s just bathe in the orange after glow of a San
Francisco Giants World Championship.
If only we could, but baseball doesn’t have all the answers and
there is real work and questioning to do. Good government, the
right leadership and real solutions for big and small social
problems are needed. It is urgent work.
Unfortunately, just like baseball, elections can’t provide all
the answers. Even honest, open and productive elections can’t do
that. Elections offer a set of limited choices, too often between
the lesser of two evils. Elections are not where bright
intelligence, impeccable credentials or people with the best ethics
and morals necessarily win. Sometimes they do, but that’s what they
call a “long shot.”
In most elections we get to either “vote the bastards out” or we
get to support our party line. Elections are like a multiple choice
quiz where the answer is “none of the above” in too many
places.
It is said that elections are the greatest expression of a free
society where every man and woman has a voice. That’s what it says
in textbooks, but money and power has corrupted such lofty
ideals.
For instance, we wonder how many votes a referendum on the
Golden Rule might garner, when asked at the current bitter ballot
box battlefield.
“Do unto others before they do it to you,” could easily win out
over “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” With so
many candidates attacking one another’s character, and with almost
all campaign rhetoric based in willful deception, lies and
half-truths, the Golden Rule would not stand a chance.
As we’ve been saying during this election year, our most local
elections are still the most untainted. We successfully just
elected new local government leadership following a series of
honest and open debates and a lively campaign season.
Local voters gave favorable support for new school bonds and
fire district parcel taxes. Voters also cast spendthrift votes
against raising vehicle license fees to support state parks, fix
potholes or expand county public transit.
Sonoma County voters favor legalizing personal use of marijuana,
although Prop. 19 failed in the statewide election. Voters here
re-elected their Democratic incumbents in Congress, and the only
self-declared Tea Party candidate lost her race in Cloverdale.
But, in looking for a larger theme or outcome, we fear this
election has mostly failed the Golden Rule.
What ever happened to “Compassionate Conservatives” and
faith-based social programs? It looks like too many votes are based
on fear instead of compassion. “Bleeding Heart Liberals” went out
of fashion long ago, but what about caring for the least among
us?
Carving the Golden Rule on a marble arch at the State Capitol in
Sacramento might serve as a reminder to our
“do-nothing” legislators that their version of “do unto others” is
causing all of us billions in public debt and is devastating our
local school budgets and young students’ careers.
With a new Republican majority in the U.S. Congress already
vowing to reverse all of President Obama’s reforms, we doubt the
Golden Rule will be part of the daily Congressional Record.
Republicans, Democrats and Tea Partiers will be doing a lot of
“doing unto others” over the next two years. Each time that
happens, the voters lose again.
— Rollie Atkinson