Christopher D. Lowe
The one thing that has undermined our constitutional Government is allegiance to personality over allegiance to rule of law.
We have abandoned our rule of law and constitution upon which it based with wild abandon, landing us precisely in the mess we’re in.
We all run to “persons” to “fix” our issues, grant our land, “get” our government job, “protect us from our enemies/debtors.
We call names of people, hoping to be afforded some special consideration through perceived association with them.
We run up the flagpole the names of those who have fallen afoul of other names, show the most promise of a coup within the political parties to lead us out of this mess.
None of which will have any hope in hell of correcting the societal woes we are beset with.
They become mired in the same tribalism which is at the root of our Nations pathetic state.
We laugh at the latest political unfortunate enough to be thrown under the bus, to become a political outcast.
Tribalism is a legitimate form of societal governance, even predating other forms of government, but not for any nation with a developed constitution and rule of law based thereon.
Tribalism can be benevolent, tyrannical, but almost always micro-managed.
It is based on the individual leader.
The “personal Power” assumed by most in “public service” is no longer attached to the “Constitutional Authority” assigned, and has been warped beyond recognition in that there is no responsibility to balance the Authority.
But, these personalities are all we have left, so we clamor and fawn over them, hopeful that fate will smile on us, that we were noticed, that we will be accepted into the tribe.
When countries are run on the whim of a few, the few who have undermined the very basis of their authority, the visible results around us are inevitable, and will remain until we return to rule of law and loyalty to our constitution.
Absolutely Chris:
It’s a shame that our choice always boils down to the lesser of two evils.
It’s easier for politicians to sell the stuff they do, even though you can smell it a mile away, than for them to explain themselves out of work.
As Don Boudreaux explains at http://www.cafehayek.com, “Gullibility is tolerable in children because kiddies have little decision-making authority. But gullibility in adults is dangerous. And no species of gullibility is as dangerous as that which leads adults such as Mr. Dionne to “trust” that a handful of people hungry for power and the privilege of spending taxpayers’ money, will – once chosen by voters – cast off their human vanities and ignorance to become selfless saviors of millions upon millions of strangers whom these officials will never as much as lay their eyes on.”
In our politics, it seems like we have the choice to either elect, quasi-criminals, or outright criminals, you really don’t want to choose either, but forced to I guess you go with lesser of two evils, and really democracy is choosing the lesser of two evils, because you rarely will agree with someone on everything, but I just hoped our two evils well weren’t so evil.
I used to think, and was taught to think that the right to vote needed to be exercised, in order to preserve it, and have a say.
I now believe however, that we are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils.
But there are two other choices:
abstain from that choice, or work to improve the choices.
Even with all the recent economic hardships experienced by all, we as a population have not yet woken up to the fact that most of our problems, that is our internal problems, are caused by the Government, irrespecive of any particular administration.
Case in point:
There finally seems to be a recognition that small business and entrepreneurial spirit is critical to a countries economic stability, but every process and proceedure is geared in practice to strangle the individual effort before it is even off the ground.
Success is intrinsically tied into individual effort to meet and beat every challenge.
Rather than enact legislation to “give” loans to startups, perhaps an honest evaluation of the beaurocracy and “wicked” ways of the Civil service should be had?
The nonesense I hear of, from people honestly trying to do things the right way, according to law, that are told “no” by various Civil servants, as if they have some “power” to say no.
People who are forced to jump through hoops that do not lawfully exist.
Imagine how much further ahead we would be, imagine how secure we as a small independent nation could be, if we didn’t have to go through these tribal rights of passage?
Right on C. Lowe. Rather than Govt worrying about creating jobs, they need to make it easier to do business in the Bahamas and remove so much red tape. This will help businesses thrive and the jobs will come.