We all know the children's story about no one daring to say, out loud, that the emperor, in his procession through the public streets, has no clothes until a young lad dared to state the obvious and then the spell was broken and everyone acknowledge that lack of clothes.
Well, we are playing that story out right now with the two established political parties. The populace on the conservative side and the progressive side are daring to say to both of them that they have lost their relevance and no longer hold any real power since they have both shown an inability to actually govern in a meaningful way.
This is not to mention that both parties consider themselves reigning over an empire and, in the process, beggaring the ordinary folks with their endless war, foreign adventures and transfers of wealth while the domestic reality crumbles and the people suffer.
So we watch the spectacle of both parties frantically explaining the fine garments that their parties are wearing in the face of the harsh realities of our everyday lives. It is failing miserably.
People are saying we do not want an emperor at all, trying to run the world, trying to bully the rest of the world into our version of what they should be. What we want is a return to democracy, attending once again to the voices of the ordinary citizens, and a president who will care for what is going on in the nation and deal with the practical realities of what our lives are like.
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If we end up with an emperor or empress who holds onto power through public relations, propaganda and manipulation while simply ignoring our domestic reality, their rule will be without much popular support, a growing resentment and little credibility.
Bob Passi
Baxter
