|
Psychological studies inform me that in any sufficiently large group or society, approximately six percent of the population is pathologically anti-social and that tendency ranges across the population in ever decreasing levels until you come to the six to ten percent of the other end of the spectrum, from which come the mother Theresas of the world.
The anti-social types have no respect for anyone, no boundaries, no empathy, no values. They tend to be authoritarian, can be quite intelligent, even brilliant and, chameleon-like, adapt any cover they need to project an image that advances their interests.
You will always find the serial murderers, child molesters, thieves and haters here and will never find them among the Mother Theresa types. As I am sure you are aware, these ugly personalities are drawn to the republican point of view, authoritarian, viewing other people as little more than obstructions, tools, weaklings and fools.
Most humans entering politics, especially those who are of a liberal/progressive mien, start out with high ideals and strong ethics but, in the struggle with the destroyers and berserkers, those fine qualities erode and stultify, eventually dying to the point where the possessors thereof find themselves having to triangulate and pretend, faking it to try still to be the high minded persons they once considered themselves to be.
There are some things one cannot compromise on, but an assumed identity has no real steel supporting it, no backbone that supports and defines limits. The "honorable" whatever, who once prized fine mettle, finds himself wandering and compromised, trying to do a good job but somewhat rudderless and trying to keep up a good act. Fakes.
A commendable few get angry. Each challenge, because they make the right choices, is totally defensible; the guiding principles held tightly, serving as both sword and shield. Any ground that is given is given reluctantly, only after a fierce struggle and a vow to self, rattling the rafters, the fight will go on and, eventually, that ground will be retaken.
Majority leader Reid is a profound case study in these principles, a good man, imagining himself the man he used to be. As shallow evidence, witness his continually repeated stories of his heroic youth, a pugnacious, victorious boxer, a buzzsaw prosecutor, keen of eye and strong of limb, moral mettle and mind.
He's still the hero of his own universe, but only of his universe.
We will not bring America back from the edge and off the endangered species list with such men unless they have a strong majority backing them up.
|