Since no one is perfect, a little constructive criticism/feedback is always good. It adds value, improves performance, and grows a person, especially if the person is receptive, teachable, and appreciative; and especially if the criticism is fair, honest, and with good intent. This is why highly successful businesses and institutions have evaluation feedback systems in place—they monitor how they’re doing and invite constructive feedback so as to tweak their performance and do better.
It’s too bad that positive, constructive feedback, fair and honest criticism with good intent, does not happen in the world of politics. What happens instead is a total castigating of one’s opponent—it would seem that everything that one’s opponent does, says, plans, promotes, encourages, or supports is not only wrong, but deplorable, even dangerous for the nation, if not downright evil.
Is President Obama the perfect president? No. But neither is he the devil in disguise. He is neither absolute good nor absolute bad. But as the nation gears up for another presidential election for 2012, starting with the Republican primaries, watch and listen. We are going to constantly hear how absolutely bad, deplorably wrong, even almost how evil Obama has been for our country. We are going to hear how he ruined this nation, how he misguided it, how he went too far and yet not far enough, how he did too little too late and yet took on too much too soon, and so-on and so-forth. It’s as if we are dealing with absolute good verses absolute evil. One’s opponent is always the evil one while the campaigner is the knight in shining armor, all angelic like, representing all that is good and pure.
It would be nice to hear some honest, fair, and wholesome criticism for a change? Spell out the differences, be specific and exact in terms of various viewpoints and opinions regarding economic choices, social policy, and national and international issues, but quit trying to paint your opponent as the devil incarnate—all bad, all evil, all wrong.
Obama made a speech last Thursday (September 8, 2011). Effectively he said, let’s put America back to work, create jobs and pass this bill now, sooner rather than later, and he had some specifics ways and means to make the proposal work for the nation. Sure, not all agree with the specifics. But, here’s the thing, a stubborn and recalcitrant opponent will oppose everything he said just for the sake of making him look bad, appear weak, seem foolish, and insure he loses. But such a response is not looking after the nation’s interests. It’s looking at one’s own political advantage, seeking only to gain the upper hand in political marks and influence. And that is what is deplorable.
America, let’s tell our politicians that we want real bi-partisan solutions and not one-upmanship grandstanding or brinkmanship politics. We have a two party system for good reason. It keeps a party from going too far, check and in balance, at least to some degree. Both sides have their good points and both have their bad. It is up to us to demand the best of both sides. It is also up to us to recognize that extremism is always bad. Too hot, too cold, too short, too long, too hard, too soft, just doesn’t cut it. We need a proper balance.
For example, we are not necessarily asking for absolutely “no tax increases,” but we do want fair and equitable taxation. We do not want total none regulation in the world of business and finance, we want wise and just regulation that appropriately protects the powerless and vulnerable. We want a balanced budget, but we don’t want to put half the nation out of work in order to get it. We accept the fact that we’ll have to borrow for awhile in order to make the budget work for us. We want to be a strong nation but we don’t want wasteful and unaccountable spending on defense, just because it’s the military. We want and need a solid and stable infrastructure—good roads and bridges, highways and waterways, effective sewage plants and dependable energy, and so we must find a way to pay for it. (And here, we really have no choice; if a house needs plumbing or electrical repair the homeowner must find a way to pay for it or the house becomes unlivable. So be it.)
These things are really not that hard to figure out. If our politicians would stop politicking and start doing their jobs, maybe we could all get back to work.
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