The Life and Death Difference

 

The recent escalation of Arab Palestinian violence and homicidal rage which had claimed too numerous Israeli victims’ and Palestinian attackers’ lives, caused untold misery, left scores injured and disrupted all activity in Jerusalem and beyond has had some telling differences in how they have been covered by the respective media outlets. The Arab Palestinian coverage had emphasized the glorious carnage which should fill every Arab Palestinian great pride and desires to emulate these shahids and their great courage committing these acts of vengeance and for the protection of the Arab Palestinian cause and the area of the al-Aqsa Mosque which they are protecting from being “defiled by the Jews and their filthy feet.” The Israeli coverage has decried the carnage and mourned the deaths of every victim including the Arab Palestinians who needfully were killed as they would not cease their homicidal rage even after being shot and wounded and already having murdered numerous others and injured far more. Our coverage of these events has spanned the past week starting with our article, “Intifada or No Intifada, Media Keeps Silent,” where we discussed mostly the incitement coming from Mahmoud Abbas amongst other Arab Palestinian spokespeople, “Terror War Escalated with Calls for More Stabbings,” where we discussed some of the attacks, both current and historic, the escalating rhetoric and instigation with stirring anti-Zionist, anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic broadcasts and Imam’s sermon on the attacks thus far and the need for more Arab Palestinians to emulate with their own bodies and lives and finally “New Day and Terror Attacks Increasing,” where we summarized a single day’s attacks and where we gave special mention to the needless death and concurrent loss of Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky (pictured below), his murderer by a radicalized Israeli Arab and a short video of those gathered towards the end of that fateful day with the crowds spilling into the streets in an attempt by many to honor and pay their respects for Rabbi Yeshayahu Krishevsky as he was lain to rest. The instigations and encouragement to violence by Imams and Arab Palestinian Authority terror instigators including Mahmoud Abbas and others has shown no signs of decreasing and could be summarized as increasing and it must be pointed out these calls to murder Israeli civilians have been echoed in sentiment if not outright calls from Arab and Joint List Knesset Ministers knowing they will never be made to pay a price for their traitorous activities as they too break Israeli laws against incitement to violence. Opposing the Arab Palestinian and Arab Israeli calls, which include an Imam brandishing a knife and using motions to indicate its use in a stabbing (though his form left room for improvement), were the calls from Israeli politicians and enforcement personnel who have implored people to avoid places where violence had been occurring such as traditionally parts of Eastern Jerusalem including the vast majority of the Old City of Jerusalem particularly on and around the Temple Mount, and the other areas from Ra’anana just outside of Tel Aviv to the rest of the locations of the other attacks.

 

 

Rabbi Yeshiyahu Krishevsky Was Run Over by the Terrorist Vehicle after which the Arab driver took to the ground with a meat cleaver, not actually though technically the knife the media referred to the weapon as being, chopped at the Rabbi assuring he had died and then took after the other person he had struck and chasing the others were injured through stabbings until the terrorist was shot by a security guard as well as several border police who arrived ending his continued attempts to kill people

 

 

The definitive difference between the Arab Palestinian and the Israeli broadcasts is one of implications looking back as well as going forward. The Arab Palestinian views have been all about further instigations and the demand that Arabs, both from the Palestinian and Israeli coverage made inflammatory rhetoric in attempts to encourage far more violence, death and destruction from Arabs coming from Judea and Samaria locations beyond the Green Line which demarcates the 1949 Armistice Line from the 1948-9 War of Genocidal Intent launched by over a half dozen Arab armies and several militias all attempting to decimate and commit a genocidal war against the State of Israel from the day of her inception and even before she was able to fully organize a military to defend the people of Israel and repel the invaders. The Arab broadcasts since day one encompass calls to arms and the instigation of Arab attacks against Israelis of all kinds though more often than not the calls are made to target Jews first and foremost. The Israeli broadcasts give pertinent information of locations where assaults are taking place so as to warn Israelis against walking in on a potentially deadly situation. The Israeli broadcasts reverently lists the dead and stricken victims from these attacks speaking of their accomplishments and the loss felt by the society with interviews of those who know the victims. The Israeli broadcasts beseeched that Arabs cease their homicidal attacks and allow for a return to normalcy.

 

So we have the Arab Palestinians calling for more violence whether the broadcasts originate from the Gaza with Hamas or Islamic Jihad spelling out their designs of incitement meant to encourage violence against Jews in particular and any Israeli generally even if they are sympathetic to the Arab cause as unless they are committed to acts of violence against the Jews they should feel unprotected from the potential of Arab violence being brought to the fore by Arab acts of violence. On the other side are the Israeli calls for calm and an end to the violence which has caused so much uncertainty and misery due to the deadly attacks. The Israelis decry these attacks, especially the suicide attacks, as antithetical assaults on society and the individuals, both those who perpetrate the attacks and those made to be the victims of these attacks. The Basic messages from the two sides are such polar opposite as the Arab Palestinians glorify the death of both the shahids who give their lives for the cause and their victims claiming such are the ultimate form of Jihad and support for the eventual formation of their state of Palestine replacing the state of Israel. These actions which are demanded by these calls for violent jihad really will not be successful as the threats of death will not prevent the Israelis from living their lives to the fullest. Such is the ultimate futility of the Arab Palestinian violence that the Arabs committing what is for all intent and purposes have all been a form of suicide attack as in almost every case as long as the terrorist is capable of movement of any sort they continue to grab their weapons, the knife, hatchet, meat cleaver or firearm and continue to attack until rendered completely neutralized which is a euphemism for dead. The Israeli response until very recently was to try and take the terrorists into custody almost at any cost. As incidents continued to rise both in lethality and numbers of attacks the Israeli response has also slowly been ramped up both in manpower and firepower. The real difference comes when one determines the intent of those involved. The terrorist has only two modes, the one where they continue to be a danger to those around them and the one where their threats have been mitigated and they are no longer a threat to the rest of the public body. The Israeli side aims for a continuation of life and the celebration of all the aspects and potentials in life and the loss to all when somebody’s life is interrupted and even terminated by an act of ruthless and wasteful terror. The Arab Palestinians worship the sacrifice just as their predecessors who also worshiped death and they commit their lives as had their idolaters with their human sacrifices to Ba’al and other stone edifices. The Arabs terrorists are the sacrifices to their false gods and their political leaders who never make such sacrifices with members from their own family, or at least extremely seldom use their own family members, play the part of the medicine man or priests from the idolatrous temple who commit the final act of sending the sacrificial individual to their death, be it on a stone altar or be it in some display of suicidal homicidal rage, the result is the same, a violent act of worship to their false god which demands sacrifices of death.

 

The Jews on the other hand celebrate life and believe that all lives matter in every situation. This drives the ethos where the emergency personnel and physicians treat those needing medical interventions suffering life threatening injuries before treating those with lesser wounds or suffering from shock. There have been the few who have called for the physicians to treat the Israelis first and leave any terrorist for last treatment if receiving any treatments at all. Those supporting such a heartless response are just further down that slippery slope where some lives are treated as more important than other lives, something which is counter to much of the ethics taught the world be the Judeo-Christian ethos. A life is a life and as we cannot know, fathom or even begin to understand the ramifications of any act when compared to Hashem’s plan for the universe, we cannot begin to claim to know whose life is most important. We are always joyous when the character in some fateful event is a person we can all use as an inspirational person to be held in high regard but we are far more challenged when the hero or the one responsible for some great consequence and the advocate for this betterment of society is somebody no one would ever mistake for an admirable person around whom would desire their child to emulate. Anyone who has ever read any Charles Dickens novels is familiar with the anti-hero, a person who does great acts of kindness and gives people assistance without asking for the monies to be repaid and we find often that the person behind these admirable acts is one of lesser morality who was particularly disreputable in their early life which has acquired for them quite a deal of wealth and then we find they are often doing self-imposed penance. This is given as the reason our learned rabbinic sages hold that all lives are precious and that we have no right to take a life unless it is to save lives.

 

Judaism has held for millennia that all lives matter, even that of the enemies of the Jews. Torah teaches the Jews and its students that one may not know or even recognize the hand Hashem as He manipulates and controls certain outcomes and guides everything such that all results as it should. This also means that we will not know who Hashem has great designs which will be placed upon their plate to be accomplished which will benefit all, and such will more often than not be beyond the capacity for mankind to understand and especially predict from whom and from where the next miracle may come. For these reasons and the other peculiarities which are just as far out of our cognitive investigative prowess as anything performed by Hashem and as such should never be questioned as all in the end will be as it should. Still, mankind was taught by the original codification in the Noahic Code which contains seven laws which are pretty much the same as the Ten Commandments minus the first three commandments. The Noahic Code is considered to be one of the earliest definitions of a basic framework for modern civilization as it calls for a fair and unbiased judiciary, basic rules which spell out protection of property, the sanctity of the marriage bond, and even one law against certain mistreatment of animals, thus the dictation that all lives matter as if a simple animal is worthy of our mercy and respect; even an animal we will be consuming as our meal. This is where the originating basis for the Jewish ideals of life as a sacred gift which we have no capacity to fully understand how each animal’s life is worth. There are boundless specifics in Judaism on even which animals one may consume and which are not for human consumption. This might beg the question as to why all the animals which Jews are restricted from eating are banned or why the clean animals are permitted for consumption. There are those who try and depict the laws as a simply guide for eating a safe diet which will restrict the possibility for food poisoning. This had been fed further by the standard claims about the difficulties with pork and the potential for salmonella should dairy product remains seep into the crevices in either wood or unfired clay bowls and then at the next meal that same bowls used with meat, possibly then the bowl could continue poisoning the person using it over a long period of time such that when the person does finally become ill, there would be no accurate way to discern what the poison was and from where it had come. The one overriding theme in Jewish culture and laws is that life is precious and a gift to be treasured and used respectfully of others such that every life is capable of fulfilling Hashem’s plans as directed.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Who Will Pope Francis Blame When ISIS Slaughters in Jerusalem?

 

Pope Francis, during his visitation to the Holy Lands, was sure to make a very public statement over the plight of the Palestinian Arabs as he made a highly publicized stop at the exact section of the security barrier where Pope Francis claimed to make a prayer for a unified Arab Palestinian State emphasizing the proposed relationship to, as scrawled on that very section of the barrier, the similarity of the Warsaw Ghetto’s walls and the Israeli built security barrier, a separation object that is largely a fence but along certain stretches is required to be an actual wall such as within heavily built up areas so that it also keeps bullets and explosives from being easily launched into Israeli areas safeguarding both Arabs and Jews of all religions and all others from terrorist assaults on their lives and which has resulted in a highly effective tool in preventing homicide/suicide bombers, homicidal vehicle attacks and sniper attacks of various varieties bringing such attacks down to becoming a rarity compared to previous attacks before the barrier was constructed. Further, Pope Francis made it publically emphasized that his trip began with meetings with Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab Palestinians which he made sure to enter from Jordan flying initially into the Jordanian capital city of Amman specifically to avoid any possible meeting with Israeli officials. The Pope went further as he make a long procession, almost a victory parade, accompanied by numerous Arab Palestinian leadership from Bethlehem to Jerusalem emphasizing in his remarks the plight and flight from Bethlehem of its once predominant Christian population making heavy implications that such a sorry state of affairs had everything to do with Israeli ‘occupation’ and the hardships caused by the Israeli government, meaning the Jewish People, completely absolving the Arab Palestinians and their history of antagonism and persecution of the Christians causing the massive flight in fear for their lives from threats and actual terrorist aggressions.

 

This was followed by a visit to Israel where Pope Francis had a totally different persona becoming somewhat aggressive and antagonistic demanding the Catholic Church be granted their inalienable rights to ownership of large areas of Jerusalem with special emphasis on newly made claims to the building which houses the gravesite of King David claiming the room above King David’s tomb was a possible Christian Holy Site where the Last Supper had recently been claimed to have taken place moving it from the previous traditional spot where there were no contentious claims to this aggressively contentious place where it placed this Christian site above and over a highly Jewish site and further the Pope demanded rights to offer prayer services, a privilege granted and almost immediately abused by attempting to hold such prayers specifically on days where Jews had particularly offered up prayers from the site and taking assurances to hold these prayer before the scheduled Jewish services thus intentionally making the site void for Jewish prayer. The Pope was far from done with his assault on Judaism as well as launching additional assaults on Israel and Israeli claims within the Holy Lands in general at times appearing to insinuate obliquely that the Jews were without any religious claims as they were no longer recognized as having any religious rights having been supplanted and superseded making void any Jewish religiously made claims having been replaced by Christianity.

 

This particular claim made by the Pontiff has ramifications beyond the replacement theology where it is postulated that the Jews have become damned as replaced as the chosen people by the Christians, the Pope would claim the Catholic Church, and no longer favored by the L0rd and cast forth from Jerusalem specifically and without claims throughout the Holy Lands. Pope Francis has, by renewing the replacement theology of the past, set the precedent that Hashem can and has broken vows and promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David and others which identified the Jewish People as those chosen to carry His Message to the rest of the world has been abrogated and transferred to the Catholic Church which makes the supersessions claimed by Islam claiming that the Christians have themselves been cast off as were the Jews making the Muslims not only the replacement in eyes of Hashem but also the final chosen peoples to carry forth the messages of Hashem and, going one step further, the ones chosen to rule all of humanity going even further afield of a similar claim indigenous to the Christian faith as Judaism never held that the world would be their inheritance, they claimed only a rather insignificant measure of land strategic only in its central location to Europe, Africa and Asia being the region where the three continents converge and having ports which can connect the two main trade routes which have since been serviced by the Suez Canal.

 

The reassertion of the policy of the Catholic Church having replaced the Jews as those having a covenant with Hashem has left the Catholic Church also subjected to being replaced as the chosen of Hashem which is exactly the claim made by Islam. Carrying the replacement and the sole holy religion has also seen both Catholicism, in the more native guise of Christianity, and Islam to thus interpret such to authorize their sovereignty over the entire planet in order for them to properly prepare for the return of Jesus which had been carried one step further by the Islamic extremists claim that their religion being the sole religion Divinely inspired as the replacement, the final replacement of both Judaism and Christianity not only should rule over all of Earth but also be the sole religion practiced by all mankind. This has been carried out to the letter by ISIS as well as being the stated end goal by Iran, Hamas, Hezballah and various other claimants to being the sole pure remaining practitioners of Islam as defined by Muhammad and is behind a very real threat being made by ISIS and a number of their adherents. The agents for ISIS in Judea and Samaria (West Bank), why that redundancy is required by all that is politically correct makes me really desire to cease the practice, and I shall endeavor to do so going forth, are requesting for a list of all the Christians residing in (East) Jerusalem and their addresses to be given to those ISIS representatives by the faithful of Muhammad, note that not all are claiming faithful to ISIS following the practice of deference when outnumbered and until gaining sufficient numbers, somewhere around twenty percent, before becoming more forceful and soon thereafter, around thirty-five percent, taking rule by force and demanding total and complete allegiance followed by choice of becoming part of the faithful as defined by ISIS to the sword, otherwise death. They want these lists as soon as possible such that they can make the necessary plans and make sure they have the necessary power and people to carry out an ethnic cleansing of the Christians residing in Eastern Jerusalem. They have not requested such a list of the Jews residing within the area as they likely believe that those entire neighborhoods are easily known and identifiable.

 

This list will necessarily be assembled with an assault plan in mind by which the vast majority of the Christians residing in Eastern Jerusalem will be forced from the area implied by the sword and not by choice but such will probably be a logistics driven decision. The ISIS planners will take the precaution of having sufficient deployment of forces such that each unit will have a flanking unit on either side or at a close proximity allowing the massing of forces should any resistance be mounted such that they can quickly and without sacrificing their intended missions gather sufficient force to swarm any resistance counting on numbers to turn the tide of battle. Such has been the tactic used by ISIS as well as preparing the area for their assault before-hand. Not possessing sufficient artillery ISIS instead uses vehicle bombs and homicide/suicide bombers to soften their intended targets instilling confusion and disorganization amongst their intended target before they follow-up with swarming the target neutralizing any recovery minimizing their target any time to regroup and form a coordinated counterattacks or even an organized defense with overlapping fields of fire and the other considerations usually carried out well in advance and practiced including tactics of the enemy being interjected at unannounced times to test procedures for just such scenarios. The target in this instance is basically a cleansing operation intended to either clear an area of any opposition or make clear that certain types residing within an area should necessarily depart before they too face the determined business end of an ISIS representative’s weapon. Their announced target date for this cleansing of the population for Allah is the final day of Ramadan which falls in July 16, 2015.

 

The first determination which must be realized by Israeli police and military forces is whether to act as an intervention in force early on and prevent the organization of ISIS forces, wait until they have gathered so as to maximize arrests, intervene as soon as the assembled ISIS forces pose a threat or to simply ignore the threat and only respond to calls in an usual manner leaving the Arab Palestinians pretty much to their own ability. The final option is actually an option not supported by Torah and Jewish Law as we are directed to protect human life as even the lowest amongst us, the beggar, the infirm, the stranger and others we might normally divert our attentions from are still lives we are commanded to care for and keep safe. The concept that each life is potentially an entire nation thus if one saves one life it is as if one has saved a world. That basically means that Israeli defense and law enforcement forces must be prepared for and the one which is most feasible resulting in there being no loss of life be the ones sent for further considerations. Another consideration should be by which of the tactics that prevents any innocent casualties would allow for the most ruinous of setbacks for ISIS and at the same time making their claims of bringing the reincarnation of the Caliphate into question. There needs to be one more principled consideration, the threat to Israeli personnel and citizens, not to claim that any one life is of greater importance than another as that is beyond our ability to reason and is best left to the Creator who knows all things, Hashem. There is one consideration which must be made initially; which is whether or not this threat posed is valid and thus worthy of making and practicing for such an eventuality. Most ISIS threats issued have proven to be real and worthy of notice, but that does not necessarily mean that this attack threat must automatically be considered valid. This threat might be being presented to gauge the level of Israeli response to threats in order to more closely study the anatomy of such a response. Whatever the reasoning behind such a threat, Israeli leadership can be assured they will be held totally responsible for any casualties outside Israeli personnel. Any other nation would be the recipient of sympathy and offers of assistance with the aftermath with support in repairing any damage, aid money to augment responses training in preparation as if there is a singular attack response which would be universally applied to every attack and resolve all problems and serious planning for special situations such as a visit and speech by another head of state.

 

The importance of responding both effectively and forcefully against any initial attack while not going to an overboard approach cannot be overestimated in this instance. Should Israel present an overly cautious and overt response to this particular threat, then ISIS planners would have an effective but simple approach to fomenting fear within Israel by simply pretending to plan an attack and allow the overt, heavy-handed Israeli ramping-up of security measures. Fortunately, for actual events such as parades, speeches and other events or places where people congregate such as train and bus stations and malls; Israel does a fabulous and renowned level of successful security to meet the requirement necessary for each location and expected crowd. Since all ISIS would need to do to estimate the Israeli response to any situation would be to go study any previous similar situation and view the control of the threat level caused and they would have their answer. Pushing a threat against Israel on her own soil and thus giving her home field advantage will simply make everything that much more difficult for ISIS. In this instance Israel will be required to bring to the table an actual threat assessment and response plan as should ISIS actually follow through on a mission to slaughter as many civilian innocents, almost especially any of the numerous minority populations, as Israel is held to the highest expectation of levels possible in the world. Israel is the only nation expected to be capable of providing on a consistent and near universal level security superior to any European nation, any Western nation and even particularly the United States. Israeli security is expected to match when provided for the most insignificant of those amongst us a level of public security roughly the equivalent of that provided the Queen of England, and Israel has thus far throughout her brief but situation filled history met that challenge almost universally; Baruch Hashem. Anybody wishing an actual example of similar situations and the difference between Israeli response and another nation with proper expectations of being capable in a security situation such as a hostage crisis, simply compare the handling of the 1972 Olympic Games abduction of the Israeli team in Munich where most of the Israeli team consisting of six Israeli coaches and five Israeli athletes were taken hostage and ended up murdered along with one German police officer while five Black September members were eliminated in the regrettable failed rescue attempt where the plans for the rescue operation were poorly executed and all of the requested aid did not arrive on scene until two hours after the stand-off and siege began leading to the conflagration that murdered most of the Israelis tied up in the helicopter which was detonated with a grenade thrown by one of the terrorists compared to the Entebbe raid by an elite IDF unit responding to the hijacking of an Air France flight and the holding of Israeli and Jewish passengers and crew numbering over one hundred victims at Entebbe International Airport in Uganda, a distance of over 2,500 miles (4,000 km) in Operation Entebbe, as it came to be known, on July 4, 1976 (giving Israelis a reason to celebrate on as high a level as the people in the United States could on that nation’s bicentennial celebrations) where all but four of the one-hundred-six hostages were rescued with the IDF team suffering five injured and a sole fatality of one of the team commanders and older brother to a future Israeli Prime Minister, Lt. Col. Yonatan Netanyahu, and all of the terrorists either killed or injured along with almost half of the approximately one hundred Ugandan military troops providing security for the terrorists. Israel had offered assistance and even to handle a rescue attempt with the German government who not only refused the Israeli offer but informed Israeli government officials that any Israelis sent to Germany would be refused entry at the airport and returned to Israel as this was a German operation and Israel had no right to interfere. Perhaps the Germans should have turned it over to the Israelis and thus make Israel responsible for the results.

 

But what is it they say about history, it is what it is and physics has not yet figured out how to alter history, only politicians and the media have such power. That is why when the history is written about the July 16, 2015 ISIS Ramadan assault intending to murder every Christian possible throughout Eastern Jerusalem the only credit or blame for this intended catastrophe in the manner of the cleansing of Mosul, the destruction of the two-thousand-eight-hundred-year-old capital of the Assyrian empire, Khorsabad, including its seven gates and the city with its most highly regarded sixty-four foot wall erected around 713 BCE by King Sargon II during his reign and nearly completely demolished in the beginning of the twenty-first century (or the fifteenth century on the Islamic calendar), parts of which have been preserved in museums in Baghdad, Paris, London and Chicago; destroyed thousands of books in libraries across the lands they have savagely rampaged with some of the books such as the rare books in Mosul are irreplaceable and singular remnants of wisdom and writings from ancient to the modern times; reintroduced slavery on a massive scale and especially the selling of woman as sexual slaves to the highest bidder, some women have been returned for receipt of a percentage of her resale price; burned, drowned, prisoners alive; shot, and beheaded people sentenced to death for even minor offences or taken prisoner; crucified Christians; blown apart prisoners shoved into a car with anti-tank missile; taken sledge hammers to ancient sculptures, vases, pottery destroying ancient displays in museums; and promised to bring this parade of horrors to every corner of the globe should they be allowed that possibility. This is the assembly of monsters across continents with fellow travelers identifying and subjugating their will all in a similar vein such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad; and other equally offensive and revolting acts all threatening to replace the comfortable lives of the decadent Western world should they be given that chance. That is their promise and where is the response from the supposed civilized world? They are either leading from behind or covering the back of the leader leading from behind all in all leaving Israel to fight the world’s war and stop the advance of those who desire a return to the tenth century, a backwards jolt on either calendar, especially the Jewish calendar which is in the fifty-eighth century.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Political Styles of Fancy, Function, Fantasy, and Far Futures

 

In case you just awoke with a ringing headache and returned from the woods to find your sleepy little town had grown exponentially and your house replaced by a strip mall and everyone when you told them your name queries where have you been, you were reported missing years ago and your tail includes dwarves bowling in the woodlands, the Republican money machine just won the midterm elections again. If such news is distressing, simply remember back to the last Presidential elections when it was rumored that the Democrat machine and money bought another Presidency for Barack Obama. Simply put, whichever side wins the election was the one which was bought by their big money contributors and political machinery. Have you ever bothered to stop and wonder what happened to the other side’s machine and money when they lost the latest round of elections? Do you really think that one side spent all the money one election cycle and in return allowed the other side to spend in the next election, something that an alien watching elections news coverage might be honestly trying to figure out. The truth is that they both spend about the same every election and the sore losers have to find some small factoid on which to blame their loss; as anybody who is, thinks, in the know, or however one defined reasoned and rational, which makes their political views the sole and superior choice, would most certainly have voted for their candidate allowing them to have won except for the illegal money spent by the other side, thanks to some loophole which must be closed immediately, and paid them to vote against their better knowledge or whatever. What is remarkable is that this line of thought is universal wherever people are fortunate enough to actually have governments chosen through proper elections where one’s votes are capable of affecting change in the government through legal elections; so be glad if after every election cycle there are those complaining that the other side bought the elections.

 

But what do we really mean when we claim the elections were bought? The phrase originates in times when buying an election actually meant buying an election by paying people to vote for a particular candidate. This was not a regular occurrence and was only feasible before there was the existence of a freestanding media which was not dependent upon the whims of the local governments. This slowly became the reality as the media started merging and coverages reached beyond a single city or borough thus beyond being owned by an interesting party or collection who were capable of owning the media in the same manner as they owned the politics as represented in old westerns where the people finally found an honest sheriff or entity who ended the evil cattle baron and his ranch hands who were all second rate gunslingers, most of which ended up dead by the end of the movie or left town after the Lone Ranger and Tonto road into town. There are stories whose validity is often questionable of elections where political bosses, whatever or whoever those amorphous entities might be, would give people a hundred dollars to vote for their candidate. There may even be people claiming such in elections today though such would be even more difficult to believe as even the most politically driven media would expose such. The truth is that even if you believe that FOX or SKY news is biased or that CNN or BBC are biased in the opposite direction, both sides are held to task and kept honest as whichever side which employed such boorish tactics would be revealed by the other side’s media thus the free press has ended any possibility of money for votes frauds. Despite this there are still claims that elections are bought, be it by the Koch brothers, George Soros or Sheldon Adelson. How is it possible for such claims to still exist?

 

Elections are bought the same exact way that everyday products sell their wares, an attractive advertising campaign. Basically the golden nugget in any campaign, political or otherwise, is a catchy phrase or concept which captivates the attentions of the public. In the 1950s the golden political nugget in Presidential campaigns was a catchy little slogan of “I Like Ike.” Call it the “Where’s the Beef” or the “Pause that Refreshes” of the political era. Of course it did also help that Eisenhower was also the man who defeated Hitler. Still, had General Douglas MacArthur run for political office, something feared by those thinking he might run on the other party’s ticket, there would have been a need for a different slogan though it would have fell to minds more inventive than mine to concoct such a slogan. Basically politics is the ability to influence people to support your candidate by making them appear to be the person of the hour or the solution to all society’s ills. In the United States the slogan of “Hope and Change” titillated the minds of the American public, especially the younger voters who turned out like never before. This was despite the fact that very few actually understood what the Hope was and what Changes it would incur. The secret was that “Hope and Change” allowed each individual to substitute whatever they desired for hope and thus define what the hope would change. If many of candidate Obama’s speeches are analyzed his definitions for hopes and changes were often amorphous and undefined allowing for those listening to still be able to define these terms to fit their desired outcome. Eventually such undefined terms become defined, and when they are defined through the actions and policies enacted by the politician who gets elected by such terminology, that becomes history which makes them rather difficult to alter going forward, something President Obama’s opposition is finding out as time passes in the United States.

 

Sometimes the election revolves around the personality where the candidate becomes the definition of the campaign and thus causing a cult of personality. This situation often results in a warping of the electoral processes and even an end to the electoral processes altogether. One example of such would have been Hitler who once he became Chancellor of Germany proceeded to consolidate all political power and became a dictatorial ruler ending the necessity for future elections. Another example of a cult of personality has been Russian leader Putin who has been Prime Minister or President of Russia where the real power of governance followed him from one office to the other and back again without anybody challenging his absorbing the right to rule no matter the office he held. With Russia hitting some difficult periods economically his future holding of power may hit a crucial test. It will remain to be seen how long Putin will remain in power and exactly how far he might be willing to go to retain power no matter the consequences.

 

Then there are the different forms of elected governments, the forms of democratic governance. There are Presidential systems where the President is chosen directly and the parliament or congress is elected separately. There are Parliamentary systems where the parliament is directly elected by voting for parties which present lists of candidates in lists to fill the slots depending on the numbers of positions they are awarded as their percentage of votes received and then the parliament has some system by which the Prime Minister is chosen to lead the coalition. There are also different forms of the elected house or houses of power. The United States has the House of Representatives and the Senate where the House of Representatives are elected with each state given their share of the four-hundred-thirty-five seats according to their population and the Senate is comprised of two positions per state. Then there is the parliament in many nations where the entire nation elects representation by voting for parties or there may be parliamentarian seats assigned to districts where individuals are elected. Parliaments can be unicameral, bicameral or possibility of any numbers of entities. Some parliamentary systems have two houses, one elected by individuals and the other by party lists. As for which form of democratic representation is superior is probably still being determined. The only thing we have established is a truth best put into words by Winston Churchill, a somewhat common situation here, where Winnie said, “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Who can argue with that?

 

Actually, that is where mankind has shown the prerogative to constantly believe that their new idea has to be better than the previous as it comes reflecting on all the errors and difficulties previous attempts by man had failed with their efforts. But the latest is not always the greatest and the old tried and true may prove to have been false in all manners except that as the old and true it was what had become comforting as it was known and accepted. The British once thought they had attained the ultimate in governance with the enacting of the Magna Carta as now the King’s power was no longer absolute and deigned as coming from G0d but to be bent by the advisings by the other men of position and stature, the barons from whence the power of the military was formed when the crown required defending against foreign foe. The United States believes they have struck the perfect balance between popularist governance and select governance of a wise body of the chosen; and they may have been correct but that will never be known as they perverted their governance with the passing of the Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution and established direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. This removed the representation of the States themselves who had previously chosen their Senators through appointment by their elected bodies, some appointed by the governor and approved by the legislators while others were elected by the legislators. What was unnecessary about the Seventeenth Amendment was that the states were already empowered to choose their Senators by whatever means they saw as preferable which did not rule out their using direct elections had they believed such was to their advantage. But instead the Federal Government instigated the new requirement for Senators to be elected in a similar method as were the Representatives in the House. Some historians have posited that the Seventeenth Amendment was not properly ratified by sufficient numbers of states but was rushed and enacted despite this small problem as eventually sufficient states did ratify the amendment, just not within the time period set forth in the Constitution. Whatever the best form of governance, perhaps someday it will be found and when it is, my bet is the United Nations will be left to be wanting and hopefully dissolved and replaced with a body noble enough to realize its power should be wielded only responding to lengthy and tempered debate which has exhausted all avenues of investigation of alternatives and ramifications and then allowed for adjustments inspired by admissions of former inadequate thought which had seemed prudent at the initial time.

 

Beyond the Cusp