Reading In Retrospect leads to thoughts about Government and Compromise
So I have not ever been a fan of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, The obvious reason, he was Defense Secretary, at the beginning and the height of the war in Vietnam, in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. But as I read his autobiography In Retrospect The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, I realize that the administrations that he served in were really in a no-win situation in Vietnam, and that he and others may have kept the US from being involved in the war far earlier. He also admits that the course the US chose concerning the war was the wrong one! At one point, he reveals for the first time what he thought John Kennedy would have done regarding the situation in Vietnam ..
….I think that it highly probable that , had President Kennedy lived , he would have pulled us out of Vietnam. He would have concluded that the South Vietnamese were incapable of defending themselves and that Saigon’s grave political weaknesses made it unwise to try to offset the limitations of the South Vietnamese forces by sending U.S. combat troops on a large scale…..(In Retrospect page 96)
From what I have read so far in both this book and The Politics of Deception, i believe he may well be right! Damn you, Lee Harvey Oswald!!
Anyway, this morning I read a passage in the book, that really hit home and speaks directly to the current state of our government Prior to the 1964 election, Lyndon Johnson asked McNamara to be his running mate, McNamara declined. He writes, that if he had a do over, he would jump at the chance to run for elective office. Because…..
There is no more important task in a democracy than resolving the differences among people and finding a course of action that will be supported by a sufficient number to permit the nation to achieve a better life for all. (In Retrospect pages 123-124)
That we have forgotten the above is in my opinion one of the major problems with our nation today! Our nation functions best ,when compromises are made on both ends of the political spectrum and when we move forward with policies that are in the best interest in all of the citizens of our country! Not just white Christians or the 1%!! But all Americans regardless of color, sexual orientation, or creed! We need to strip away all classifications of people except one – that they are first and foremost people – we all breathe the same air, eat the same food (with slight modifications), for the most part love our families and are entitled to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness! And since we can not solve many of the problems that arise in our country that are larger than the city or state that we live in, it is the purpose of government to help us achieve those goals ….. in fact our government’s mission statement. That mission statement is pretty well summed up in the Preamble of the US Constitution…..
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America……
In order to do the above it takes a lot of compromise on both sides. Nobody in America has the same set of political or religious beliefs, so many times those beliefs need to be compromised to create a way forward that is acceptable to as many people as possible and leads to a better life for ALL. When either side refuses to do that you get what we have now STAGNATION and a broken government! What we have now is a government and nation of people who are out only for themselves, and since the ones who have most of the money have most if not all the political power, they get what they want and the rest of us be damned.
So how can we move forward? Wouldn’t it be great if both political parties realized that how they serve is not the corporations that bankroll their campaigns, but the people who elect them And that they realize that when they are elected to serve a state, they are elected to serve ALL of the people, not just those who hold the same position on the political spectrum, and as they vote on legislation they study how that legislation impacts all of the people of the country! I know it’s a dream but the question remains What If??? I’m stepping down from my soap box now!! Oh, and the one way forward may be a rumple Vermont socialist who realizes that power has to be returned to the PEOPLE… Go Bernie!!