9/11/09

A tale of three brothers...

The oldest brother is what many of you might call a standard reactionary hatemonger. He became convinced at a very early age that special interests were running the country and that the people who complain the most loudly about special interests are usually the biggest hypocrites. Everyone loves special interests as long as their own interests are the ones considered special, after all. The first special interest to draw this young man into politics was our beloved National Education Association. At age 7, this particular boy was given an assignment to write a paragraph about a topic in the current newspaper. He composed his sentences effectively, organized his information in the recommended inverted pyramid, and employed accurate spelling and punctuation. He got a bad grade on the paper anyway. Why? Well, it turns out that the teacher didn't have much use for seven year olds who spoke forcefully against abortion. And thus the die was cast...

The young man continued to learn and read throughout the years, refining his views on some topics and becoming an intransigent pain in the ass with respect to other topics. He concluded somewhere along the way that the old saying is completely true - Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. I would posit that we've most certainly failed to learn from history, even though it's right there for us to read. For this reason, our oldest brother now finds himself to be a cynical prick.

The second brother became interested in matters of politics much more recently. Growing up in Southeast Michigan and the son of a proud union Democrat, he was inclined to embrace a more collectivist viewpoint than that of his older brother. He supported the (unsuccessful) effort of a Massachusetts senator to unseat President Bush in 2004. He also read a book by a senator from Illinois, not long afterward. Audacity of something or other, it seems... This brother was rather impressed with the author's story and so began to learn more about the subject of politics in general. He read and listened and spoke and then read and listened and spoke some more. By November of 2008, he was fully engaged in the political process and campaigning actively... for Senator John McCain of Arizona. The apparent immorality of passing on ever-growing debts to future generations in order to buy votes today was simply too much for him to stomach. Unlike the older brother, this one hasn't yet concluded that the world has become collectively complacent and uninformed. He still possesses that optimistic quality that many of us once had.

The third brother in our little story was the last to arrive in this world and also the last to arrive in the political discussion. After high school, he bounced around between a few menial jobs before accepting an apprenticeship with his father's trade union. As a proud union member, he also tended to follow the marching orders typical for a good Michigan Democrat. Earlier this year, he was laid off from his job for several months. With lots of free time and very little money, he spent his days watching the dueling propaganda between Fox News and MSNBC. He also started to ask some questions of those around him in an effort to cut through the BS.

When the issue of cap and trade legislation came up this year, a situation took place that surprises me at least a little. This youngest brother was given an excused absence by his employer to attend a protest rally. That part is not terribly surprising, in and of itself. He does work at an evil oil refinery, after all. The surprising part, at least as I see it, was that his union seemed to offer quiet support for the protest. A tacit admission that the Midwest is squarely in the cross hairs this time around, one might conclude. And now this youngest brother is wholly convinced that his federal government shouldn't be destroying jobs in Michigan, where jobs are not exactly plentiful in the first place.

Three brothers, three different outlooks, and three different paths to get there. Three brothers now getting in a car and heading out to save the republic... or something. See you in D.C.