New Journey and Exercise of Power
We all are in a new year with a journey that is not new. An old journey renewed
after every twelve calendar months.The only one group who can claim to have
new journey are new born babies. Ironically, these new babies journey are
affected by the pollution in the world of a struggle without an end. Every human
or human organization steer its ship forward whichever it is practically possible
as long as no law is broken, the powerful manipulating the system to its favor at
the expense of the weak. And the weak strive to join the rank of the powerful.
Everyone seeking power. Some have perished in the process.
If you don’t know what it is called exercise of power, you will need to see that
those who have no political power seek money power. The end result is influence;
to be able to influence decisions. On the first day of January, President Barack
Obama shows with events leading to the passing of the senate bill for the
temporary management of the fiscal cliff crisis, an example of exercise of power
not by might or brutal power, but persuasion and having the will of the people in
mind.
He made sure his cries were for the interest of majority of the downtrodden called
the 98% and sought tax increase for the few 2%. As president who rules with the
rule of law in mind, he couldn’t just say, “raise the taxes against the rich”. He sought
the approval of the Congress, worked hard to obtain majority of the votes in
the senate and the house. The Republican caucus that would have doomed his
plans was buoyed by the love of country, and some members from the caucus voted
against their conviction that the senate bill was imperfect.
The decision of some members of the Republican caucus to vote against their party’s
wish is another veritable lesson in exercise of power. It wasn’t that they couldn’t
vote in support of their party’s wish as demanded by some of them, but the love
of the country and the need to pull the country off the cliff was more
important than party politics. They didn’t want to be seen as responsible for
the country falling from a cliff, in the face of the president’s charge that if
the White House and the Congress couldn’t achieve a deal to save the country,
the Republicans should be held responsible. It was politics, politics from
reality that the bulk stops on the president’s desk.
But in spite the deal, the country’s $16trillion deficit is still there to be addressed.
The spending cuts are still there to be addressed. The president and the speaker
of the house will still have to work together to find solution by addressing the
spending issue. The president, the senate president and the speaker of the
house will have to bury the hatchets arising from brushes over the senate bill.
The senate president calling the speaker dictatorial; the speaker saying the
senate president was wrong calling him dictatorial and the speaker’s reported
vow not to meet the president ‘one on one’ again outside the house’s rules
should be eschewed.
After reelection as speaker for the 113th Congress, the speaker said the
American Dream is in peril and America cannot pass the $16trillion debt to
American children. Continuous exercise of power based on the spirit of checks and
balances established by the constitution is the best way to ensure that American
children’s journey are not polluted.
It was the point missed by those who viewed actions by members of the Republican
caucus who voted in support of the senate bill to save the country from the cliff as a
victory for the White House and the Democratic Party.
