by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.
Author's program note. I have been a political animal my whole life, my entire life since birth, February 16, 1947. I mean, I was chairman of the Puffer School Republican Party in 1960. When Illinois Governor William G. Stratton came down on the school playground for some platitudes, I was the guy who was taken up in his excellency's helicopter. The local paper blazoned "Local Ladd flies high," being a play on my middle name ("Ladd").
The fact that Governor Stratton was wiped out in his bid for a third term (thereby helping hand John F. Kennedy Illinois and the White House) and later made the obligatory stay in the Big House the way most Illinois governors do, in no way diminished my personal thrill. For I was the most political of animals... beguiled by America's real national pastime and blood sport -- politics -- never happier than when sticking pins in the huge maps that turned my adolescent bedroom into Campaign Central, its very walls covered in ephemera -- buttons, posters, autographed photos and brochures featuring the greatest slogans every written -- and ignored. Everything -- absolutely everything -- about politics thrilled me. That was then...
... this is now. But before I survey the lugubrious aspect of political affairs, before I hold up system and candidates to justifiable obloquy and disgust... before I offer a panoply of needed reforms and recommendations, I shall give you today's music, for if this rollicking set-piece of Americana cannot improve the atmosphere and help revive and reinvigorate, then we are well and truly doomed. And so, with the greatest possible hope, I give you... "Take Me Out To The Ball Game," even more American than the apple pie nobody's grandmother makes home made anymore.
"Take Me Out to the Ball Game."
This 1908 Tin Pan Alley song was written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer. The first notable thing you need to know is neither of its creators had ever attended even a single game prior to writing it, thus providing justifiable license for politicians (and that would be every politician) who talk vehemently and so well about matters they have never seen and know nothing about. (By the way Von Tilzer didn't see his first baseball game until 20 years after his iconic achievement; it took Norworth even longer, 32 years. They helped immortalize a game that clearly neither saw much point of even attending.) Go now to any search engine and find it. Personally I prefer the original 1908 Edison recording by Edward Meeker. He sings it with just the rousing gusto and tongue-in-cheek enthusiasm required.
The boys of Cambridge.
It is now time to tell you something about the presidential candidates you have probably never known or considered before, namely that these men are both card-carrying members of the best and the brightest, that is they are both Harvard boys, Harvard grads. But they were instructed by and matured in two quite different faculties, Law and Business. Once you understand this you begin to understand their manifest strengths -- and weaknesses... and our national predicament.
Barrack Obama was a star at Harvard Law School, right across the street from where I'm writing you. As such he became adept at what clever lawyers do: he learned not to make pies but to divide pies. In other words, he was trained to be expert at dividing what is not his; what he had done nothing to create. Instead, lawyers prosper by taking a sum of anything and making a deal with it, a deal that will give his client as much of what's being cut up as possible; thereby increasing his commission... and wealth.
Lawyers, especially Harvard trained lawyers, know nothing about the grubby, demanding, even squalid work of building wealth. But when partners fall out, marriages fail, squabbling children fight each other for more than their share, no one is more equipped to fight for you using the tools which, in the right manicured hands, can and will be devastating to opponents. Here the pen (and precedent) are truly mightier than the sword. Barrack Obama is the master of masters here.
On the other side of the River Charles lies the citadel of capitalism and unimaginable wealth, Harvard Business School. Here Mitt Romney, plutocrat, learned the essential secrets that turned him into one of history's richest people. The game went something like this: find a business, review its operations carefully, then surgically remove what is not profitable (including excess labor) to create profit. Then sell the reorganized, vastly more efficient enterprise for maximum -- and fastest -- return on investment. It was all about what capitalism is always all about -- money. Creating jobs, employing people and improving their lives had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Now these supremely gifted men are charged with the pressing task of persuading "we the people" that they have what it takes to lead a fractured, factious nation at a perilous time. And so far we are underwhelmed.... and increasingly impatient. As sardonic Miss Peggy Lee sang so well, lyric acid in her voice, "Is that all there is?" Because if that's all there is, then let's keep dancing.
Going through the motions, enthusiasm tepid at best.
In 1948 an execrated little man from Independence, Missouri, a man who by an accident of history was President of the United States wrote his sister a letter which said volumes. He told her he was going to go out across this great nation and present himself to the majesty of the people, show them who he was... and learn more and more still about who they were and what they wanted from him. He choose to do this on America's railroads, the greatest on Earth. Thus, fully committed, with astonishing energy and high good humor and desire to connect, Harry Truman boarded the Ferdinand Magellan and, at even the tiniest whistle stop, gave them hell...
The nation responded by giving him a smile, a hand shake, and the presidency.
Sadly the candidates have drawn the absolutely wrong conclusion from this event. Harry Truman won not because he whistle-stopped but because he had personal convictions, because he did everything possible to connect with Citizens of the Great Republic, and because he came across as a man of integrity, credibility, and a man who did not just expatiate and make promises, but who actually said what he meant and meant what he said, pledging, not merely promising.
Is there anyone out of rompers who believes that about our candidates as they too "whistle stop"; this time ordinarily in supremely appointed air-conditioned buses, usually in the key state of Ohio? If so, I don't know this person. And neither do you.
As a result, I have come to the infinitely sad conclusion that neither candidate believes in anything, anything at all, except what is directly related to seizing the White House, the most bully pulpit in the world, and neither one knows how to use it to grasp minds, create visions, and achieve the great successes we expect of our hailed to chief.
That why I am disheartened, dismayed, and increasingly despondent about these men and their vapid campaigns. And I remind them of this: that the truly great create precedents and do not merely follow them. They seize the future and then use the unparalleled resources of both their person and office to achieve success and make this Great Republic greater still. Until this happens, fewer will care, fewer will vote, and more, like me, will become disenchanted by a process that continues to produce so much less than we need and which our Citizens deserve.
In the meantime...
"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd: Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back"
... especially if there's not a better prize in this box.
About the Author
Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today. Republished with author's permission by Ruthsella Corasol http://WorkingAtHome101.com
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