Pssst! Who's behind the decline of politics? [Consultants.]

Pssst! Who's behind the decline of politics? [Consultants.]

Posted Sunday, Apr. 09, 2006

On the evening of april 4, 1968, about an hour after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, Robert F. Kennedy responded with a powerfully simple speech, which he delivered spontaneously in a black neighborhood of Indianapolis. Nearly 40 years later, Kennedy's words stand as an example of the substance and music of politics in its grandest form and highest purpose—to heal, to educate, to lead. Sadly, his speech also marked the end of an era: the last moments before American public life was overwhelmed by marketing professionals, consultants and pollsters who, with the flaccid acquiescence of the politicians, have robbed public life of much of its romance and vigor.

Kennedy, who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, had a dangerous job that night. His audience was unaware of King's assassination. He had no police or Secret Service protection. His aides were worried that the crowd would explode as soon as it learned the news; there were already reports of riots in other cities. His speechwriters Adam Walinsky and Frank Mankiewicz had drafted remarks for the occasion, but Kennedy rejected them. He had scribbled a few notes of his own. "Ladies and gentlemen," he began, rather formally, respectfully. "I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening because I have some very sad news ..." His voice caught, and he turned it into a slight cough, a throat clearing, "and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee."

There were screams, wailing—just the rawest, most visceral sounds of pain that human voices can summon. As the screams died, Kennedy resumed, slowly, pausing frequently, measuring his words: "Martin Luther King ... dedicated his life ... to love ... and to justice between fellow human beings, and he died in the cause of that effort." There was near total silence now. One senses, listening to the tape years later, the audience's trust in the man on the podium, a man who didn't merely feel the crowd's pain but shared it. And Kennedy reciprocated: he laid himself bare for them, speaking of the death of his brother—something he'd never done publicly and rarely privately—and then he said, "My favorite poem, my favorite poet was Aeschylus. He once wrote, 'Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart,'" he paused, his voice quivering slightly as he caressed every word. The silence had deepened, somehow; the moment was stunning. "'Until ... in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.'"

More @ http://tinyurl.com/o2cfn time.com

The author of this piece appears to believe that politics is/was/should be somehow placed on a higher plain. That somehow politics must appeal to a cleaner more moral mind-set. That politics, politician's, and their supporters are or ever were moral upright people who yearn for uplifting messages and visceral imagery via the spoken word. Apparently the author has not done his homework.

Politics since the time of Julius Cesar has been about manipulating as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time by appealing to man kinds baser emotions. A brief look at history will show that in the 19th & 20th centuries politics in the US has been marked by violence, consumption of huge quantities of liquor, and lies/truth bent to the best advantage. Even that so called paragon of virtue Abraham Lincoln was involved in fistfights and smoky room dealing in his political career.

People do not want to hear the truth or at least the real truth. People want to hear what they perceive to be the truth. Of course what is one man's truth is another man's lie and so it goes lies or truth according to your lights. Honest politician's (If there is such a mythical creature) are never going to be elected as honesty and politics are like oil and water, they don't mix well.

Politics like war is a messy business and best left to those of us with a strong stomach and a cynical eye. You may say I'm a cynic and that's true and politics is filled with cynic's just like me.