~~By Kenosha Marge
The song “Holding Out For A Hero” sung by Bonnie Tyler was released back in 1984. It resonated with women who were wondering what had happen to their knight on a white horse. And it had a great beat.
Nowhere is this kind of fantasy more apparent to me than in politics. We are all looking for a hero/heroine to rescue us and make our corner of the world a better place. Heroes have to do that. I think it’s in the first chapter of the Heroes Guide To Fixing Everything and Making The World A Better Place and Favorite Recipes Handbook now on sale at Amazon.
I stopped believing in Fantasy a long time ago. Didn’t/don’t believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy or honest politicians.
When your parents try to convince you that some fat dude in a red suit is flying all over the world delivering toys to good little girls and you know that you ain’t been good but you got stuff anyway, it plays hell with your belief system. My mistrust of things told me by others was set. My jaundiced eye was locked and loaded.
For years, as a Democrat, I was able to convince myself that my party, while not perfect, was better than that other party. I was convinced that the folks that voted for Republicans were somehow just not as smart or well informed as I was. I was a liberal and we all know that we’re smarter than those conservative people.
Time went by and I found myself beginning to doubt. Uncomfortable doubts that prodded at what I like to think of as my character. Small niggling doubts that made me uncomfortable with a belief system I had held for most of my life. The belief that Democrats were better than Republicans, that Liberals were better than Conservatives and that by voting a straight Democratic ticket year after dreary year I was doing a good thing.
Those beliefs were tattered and torn by the time the last election cycle rolled around. I had begun to suspect that what I thought was strong conviction might just be mental laziness and a determined effort to not discover that I had been bamboozling myself for most of my life.
With doubts becoming stronger and my whole belief system beginning to come apart at the seams we entered the election cycle of 2008. Reality met fantasy and the result was a newly hatched Independent that no longer believes that one Party is any damn better than the other. Individuals on both sides leave much to be desired in the character and honesty department. Some individuals on both sides are better than certain individuals on either side.
The cynic in me, the one that always knew that many/most/all politicians are liars and thieves was hatched and I knew that I had allowed myself to be duped and that I had been a sucker, a sap, a pigeon and a chump. Not a pleasant awakening but one made bearable by the sight of so many people who continue to be duped and are still suckers, saps, pigeons and chumps. I saw the light. They are still walking around in the dark. Thus I still get to feel superior to someone.
Any residual belief in the Democratic Party died a sad death on May 31st 2008 when the Democrats proved to my complete satisfaction that they are just as corrupt as the Republicans. Given the Bush/Cheney bunch that took some doing.
I knew what I wanted and expected from elected officials. I had begun my interest in politics with JFK. He was a hero in our divided household. My parents, Democrat Dad and Republican Mom both voted for JFK. That alone would have earned my respect since sniping at each other over politics was just one of many ways in which my parents liked to stick knives into each other. Except for the fact my brother and I would have never been born we both wished that they had never met.
Back to politics. Having cut my political teeth on JFK I was always a bit disappointed in LBJ. But he managed to punch through some legislation that was very important to me and thus I began my career of ignoring things that were less honest than I would like as long as the job got done. I learned pragmatism and hypocrisy at the same time.
Those of us that lived through the days and the deaths of JFK, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to, needed to find heroes to replace the truly exceptional men who had been taken from us so brutally. Perhaps that’s when many of us began to make excuses and began to live with a double standard that made hypocrites of us without us noticing it happening. Or perhaps we just didn’t want to notice.
Then we spent years wandering in the wilderness with the likes of Nixon, Ford and Carter. I believe that both Ford and Carter were good men but neither man seemed, at least to me, to have real leadership qualities.
Ford however earned my undying enmity by pardoning Nixon. I quit honestly believe that George W Bush would not have dared to overreach so far had Nixon been made to face the consequences of his actions.
George Herbert Walker Bush was never a favorite of mine but I never demonized him either. The worst thing he ever did in my mind was father George W.
Bill Clinton was and is an able politician and I believe he did far more good than harm. I voted for him twice and don’t regret either vote. He could have done more had he done less nonsense.
I still didn’t believe in fantasy yet I was convinced that sometime there would come to prominence in this country a person of the stature of the founding fathers. There would come a person of depth and breadth, a person of honesty and integrity. There would come a person who saw what was needed for the short term and could still plan for the long. There would come a person who cared first and foremost for his/her country and its people and not for a political party. There would come a person that would tell the people the truths that they needed to hear and then let them decide if they wanted honest government or empty promises.
Still waiting for that kind of person to come along. All we seem to get any more are politicians, which means all we get anymore are liars.
I’m still holding out for a hero. I might be willing to settle for a good, decent, honest patriot who wants what’s best for this country and it’s people.
Or should I continue to hold out for a hero? I expect him/her about the same time as my white knight on a fiery steed. Both horse and knight are undoubtedly over the hill by now; but then so am I. And the fire in my blood? Probably just hearturn.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f_HsjpSVaI
Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where’s the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?
Isn’t there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and turn and dream
of what I need
[Chorus]
I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ’til the end of the night
He’s gotta be strong
And he’s gotta be fast
And he’s gotta be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I’m holding out for a hero ’til the morning light
He’s gotta be sure
And it’s gotta be soon
And he’s gotta be larger than life
Somewhere after midnight
In my wildest fantasy
Somewhere just beyond my reach
There’s someone reaching back for me
Racing on the thunder end rising with the heat
It’s gonna take a superman to sweep me off my feet
[Chorus]
Up where the mountains meet the heavens above
Out where the lightning splits the sea
I would swear that there’s someone somewhere
Watching me
Through the wind end the chill and the rain
And the storm and the flood
I can feel his approach
Like the fire in my blood
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holding_Out_for_a_Hero
Filed under: Current Politics | Tagged: "Heroes Guide to Fixing Everything and Making the World a Better Place", "Holding Out For a Hero", Bill Clinton, Bobby Kennedy, Bonnie Tyler, Carter, Conservatives, Democratic Party, Democrats, Dick Cheney, Easter Bunny, FOrd, George Bush, George Herbert Walker Bush, heroes, heroines, Independents, JFK, LBJ, Liberals, Martin Luther King Jr., Nixon, Republicans, Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy |
InsightAnalytical -- Watching Our World 
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There are still heroes among us. Think of the USAir captain who saved his planeload of people and the Maersk Alabama captain who gave himself up for his crew. Think of Jessica Lynch, who refused to believe she was a hero.
But those kinds of heroes will never attain the White House. The path there is so corrupt now that a honest man doesn’t stand a chance.
We may have to settle for heroes like Susan Boyle. I think looking for a hero in politics is folly.
Marge speaks for me as well. The thirst for leadership is so strong in many of us but we are at a loss.
Nothing gets my anger up as much as hearing the excuse that: well this is politics and politicians have to do what they have to do in order to survive. Survive what? The possibility that that vaunted seat in congress is theirs forever? That in order to maintain that seat one must make deals, sell out, tell lies, misplace integrity, and lose their soul in the bargain? That seat is not permanent. It belongs to the people. The occupant represents us, not the corporations, nor the party, nor the special interests.
But we merely shrug it off. Politics as usual. They do what they do to survive. If it weren’t so pathetic it would be funny. We have lost our way.
Nice to hear from you again Pat!
I agree we have lost our way.
Part of that I think is that we think we need some “Rock Star” or “Hero/She-ro” when what we need is competence, intelligence and integrity.
I agree with creeper, we find “heroes” out among the ordinary people frequently. I too found Jessica Lynch’s refusal to allow herself to be portrayed as a hero to be truly heroic. A woman of integrity. Too bad she isn’t running for office. Maybe she will some day. She sure as hell has “name recognition”.
I do have one “hero” among the elected nitwits in Washington. That would be Russ Feingold. No matter what else he ever does I will always admire and respect him for the tremendous courage and integrity it took to stand alone against the “Patriot Act”.
People of integrity and competence just aren’t getting elected. And if it was up to the powers that be neither would Feingold.
HILLARY IS MY HERO!!!!!!!!!!!
Marge, I just commented today on Widdershins regarding my support of Russ Feingold. He seems to be a lone voice of reason these days. We need to be rid of the concept of “career politicians”, a group of self serving and dismal people who have only their own interests at play.
Surely there must be more Russ Feingolds out there willing to stand up to power. If not, then best we throw in the towel now and content ourselves that this will be how it will always be and find a comfortable nook somewhere. Otherwise all our angst will be for naught.
I often feel the almost overwhelming temptation to do just that. I have a ton of books that I haven’t gotten around to reading and I can at least vote for Feingold and feel I’ve done something good.
The trouble is my damn angst refuses to let me do that. Just my luck to have a damn angst with an attitude!
Marge: I hear you. I have so many good books piling up, the time to indulge myself, yet I find myself drawn back to the net just looking for validation and a hopeless sense that maybe somebody will stand up for once and do the right thing.
There are so many excellent writers on the blogs, you being one I particularly find myself in agreement, that it becomes almost an obsession trying to get to as many as I can and before you know it, hours have passed.
Trying to maintain a balance is difficult when you see the world lurching toward who knows what.
Here I am still blogging after many urges to give it up and take care of things I’ve let go…
But I’m still here…may go through ups and downs and times without much posting…but, I keep finding things to write about and I’m back at it again…
The real heroes — are the ones who know instinctively how to respond during a crisis. They don’t have teleprompters or instruction manuals or teams of advisers.
Heroes are human — they can’t have all the answers — no one hero will be a perfect match for every crisis.
During the non crisis do we want a Mr/Ms perfect — just sitting around waiting for the next crisis?
Real heroes will recede into the crowd and continue to do their jobs.
Few if any modern politicians are leaders — they don’t have the personality — that innate ability. All they can do is copy and follow the script. Most politicians are OWNED by big business or by whoever or whatever paid their way into the office they hold. Most Politicians are followers — they follow the polls or the big bucks.
OH and there is the issue of the EGO — most politicians have a huge ego and they are more interested in the care and feeding of their ego and re-election of their ego — then in representing the voters.
Heroes who have all the answers and are the “Father Knows Best” — are a myth.
Real heroes are of the moment — of the crisis. They don’t step forward to feed their egos.
My heroes are the people on this blog (and a few others). True patriots that see what is happening to American and refuse to accept it quietly despite the personal cost to themselves.
Kenosha Marge, GRL, American Lassie, Chicago Correspondent Leslie, and our loyal readers are the heroes in my book.
Thanks, GG…Of course, you are a hero, too!!!
That goes for me too Grail and GRL.
My hero is Ralph Nader. Dennis Kucinich used to be my hero until he came out in support of Obama.