Edward R. Murrow Was Right


Edward R MurrowReading time – 46 seconds; Viewing time – 2:46  .  .  .

Said Edward R. Murrow, “Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn’t mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.”

Imagine if Donald Trump understood that. Or Ted Cruz. Or Mitch McConnell or Chuck Grassley or Sarah Palin or any of the long list of people whose notion of public service is:

  1. To block any progress on anything other than bulking up the wallets of already rich people, and
  2. Saying ludicrous, flagrantly false things designed to stoke fear and anger in people who are already fearful and angry.

It was during Bill Clinton’s presidency that the Republican party went full bore obstructionist. It became the party of “no” and offered absolutely nothing that would make America better, nothing to “form a more perfect union.” Republicans were solely about clawing for power via public confrontation, even opposing things they had previously championed.

Their philosophy was perfected during the Obama presidency, as Republican lawmakers and a few others gathered at an exclusive DC restaurant on inauguration night, January 20, 2009. The purpose of the meeting was to declare their strategy to defeat Obama in every way, to deny him any victories, regardless of the stupidity of their actions and the cost to our country.

Mitch McConnell went public with that, telling us his number 1 goal was to make President Obama a 1-term president, making clear that anything to make things better for the country or for the American people was secondary. It was all about a Republican power grab. Indeed, they would refuse to do the very jobs they were hired to do and instead would focus solely on partisan warfare. For them, cooperation and compromise meant that everyone else must cave in and agree with them 100%.

None of that strategy would have made sense or been wise had it been heard at the end of the bar. It surely was a clarion call to self-destruction that was heard halfway around the world and that didn’t make it any wiser.

It still isn’t wise and we’re living with that stupidity right now, as McConnell refuses to vet a Supreme Court nominee. He claims that presidents in an election year never make such appointments. That’s absolutely true, except for Anthony Kennedy, who was appointed in Reagan’s last year in office. In fact, one of every three presidents has made a Supreme Court appointment in an election year.

Sadly, Murrow was right.

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Ed. note: There is much in America that needs fixing and we are on a path to continually fail to make things better. It is my goal to make a difference – perhaps to be a catalyst for things to get better. That is the reason for these posts. To accomplish the goal requires reaching many thousands of people and a robust dialogue.

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2 Responses to Edward R. Murrow Was Right

  1. Jim Altschuler March 20, 2016 Reply

    I totally agree with Dominick, and with Mr. Murrow. I also have to concur that the 99% are ignorant — of the real intent of congress people and senators through the last 30 years, of the pettiness and small-mindedness of supposedly grown adults on BOTH sides of the aisle, of the failure by both sides of the aisle to do the jobs for which they were elected, of the failure to act in the best interests of the American people.

    Trying to determine how the vast majority of the American people can allow themselves to be mislead without questioning what the heck is going on boggles the mind. I guess Lincoln was right — You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time.

  2. dominick March 20, 2016 Reply

    Mitch McConnell represents the citizens of Kentucky at around 4.5 million. The President represents the American people at around 323 million. Our two bribe-taking political parties agree to complain about each other’s actions. They let each other take turns fooling the American voter who is too brainwashed to know how brainwashed they are. After they are done making promises to be our friends who “fight and work hard” for us, they just give each other a wink, as they acknowledge that everything is under control. They know that 99% of voters are unable to comprehend that at any time, a member of Congress or any other legislatures, who supposedly represent a small number of constituents, has the power to stop any level of government from functioning as a democracy.

    http://WWW.TrueDemocracyNow.org