Here’s the first verse of a poem I learned at Guy’s Hill Elementary School, when I was 8 years old:
Live for something, have a purpose,
And that purpose keep in view;
Drifting like a helmless vessel,
Thou canst ne’er to life be true.
Half the wrecks that strew life’s ocean,
If some star had been their guide,
Might have now been riding safely,
But they drifted with the tide.
I would recommend these lines to whoever is running the Democratic Party these days.
Comedian Will Rogers once observed that he did not belong to any organized political party because he was a Democrat. And he wasn’t just kidding.
The Democrats have never been able to stay focused. For a time, FDR (and Eleanor!) gave them something to strive for but they apparently haven’t had the will to stay the course.
They get sidetracked. They get corrupted. They get too cunning for their own good. And they lose the high moral ground.
Reports in today’s news illustrate my point. I read that “progressives” cleaned up in the Democratic primaries yesterday. And I am informed that the party might compromise on core issues to win seats in deep-red states.
So which is it going to be, Democrats?
Are you going to “live for something, have a purpose, and that purpose keep in view”? Or are you going to pander to voters who don’t share your ideals?
Here’s a question for you if you’re thinking of compromise. What happens after the election? How do you govern when you must depend on votes from politicians who don’t steer by your guiding star?
I would think you learned your lesson when those Blue Dog Democrats sabotaged Obama’s original health care plan. So stick to your guns in November, cost it what it may.
And here’s a caveat. Don’t believe you can win just by bashing Trump. There’s a lot more to the Trump phenomenon than the man himself.
Your mission must be to serve the common good – not to make Trump look bad. He will do that quite efficiently by himself.
So tell us how you propose to make our country a better place to live in. And don’t veer away from that guiding star just to win seats.
