The Shoe Heard Around the World

By Ronald E. Hignight

It was not long ago that we witnessed the “shoe heard around the world” fly past President Bush’s head. With surprising agility, GWB dodged the shoe. The event highlighted, and ended, an era of bully, smash and bash politics. Bush was a lame duck at that point and all of us were looking forward to change.

Change. We were looking to increase the esteem not only of the office of President, but that of this Country as well. We were looking eagerly to the Legislature to perform miracles with a Bush-failed economy and to get past Republican obstructionism towards national welfare; most especially health-care reform. And, we were looking for the government to do some long-range thoughtful planning with respect to the environment rather than continue the ‘fix-it when it’s broke’ solutions of the past.

But what we failed to account for, even as among Democrats who secured the necessary majority to achieve these things, was the fact that all politicians – whether they are conservative or liberal or middle of the road – secure their positions by learning and employing the duck and dodge maneuver so expertly displayed by President Bush.

What we have been left with is a collection of salons in charge of the Legislative branch who are trained to react to every adversarial challenge by ducking, dodging and side-stepping. No one of them is capable of directly confronting a challenge and is constantly looking for the euphemistic compromise. If the shoe thrower is appeased, the current salons believe that they will be better able to survive the next election. And, it appears that such is their only concern.

Where are the men and women of character who are capable of taking a shoe to the head and keep on going? President Obama, upon learning of Republican Brown’s seizure of a Democratic Senate seat, stated that he was not going to abandon the fight for health care just because the fight will be tough. Hopefully, the salons in the Legislature will follow suit and take a shoe to the head if one is thrown. After all, they may find that voters are likely to hold them in higher esteem if they have the force of character to stand up to adversity.