On July 13, 2020
© By John Arkelian
“The United States of America was founded on great ideals – of liberal democracy, individual liberty, equality before the law,
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inalienable human rights, and governance that is truly of, by, and for the people. In practice, however, those great founding principles have sometimes been neglected, tarnished, unduly compromised, and even actively undermined by aims and actions that are unworthy of the Great Republic. The narrow, selfish interests of the few too often trump the common welfare of the many; when money taints politics, profit outranks principle. Core human rights are sacrificed on the unholy altar of an illusory security from those who would harm us. Wretched tyrannies are embraced as ‘allies’ when we should regard them as repugnant foes of freedom….
Democrat and Republican. How different are they, really? Both seem to neglect the 99% in favor of the narrow interests of one-percenters. Maybe they are just a good-cop, bad-cop tag team, an unholy pairing that gives us the illusion of choice, when, beneath the rhetorical ‘differences,’ each of those parties is one-half of a single Janus-faced party of the status quo…
An idealist, by contrast, is one who cherishes all high, noble principles (rather than a narrow ideology), one who dares to dream of what has never been and to ask, “Why not?” 2020 is a presidential election year in the United States. If there ever was a time to ask, ‘Why not?’ and ‘What if?’ this is it. If an idealist were president, he (or she) would be guided in all things by the great ideals upon which the nation (and indeed, the Free World) was founded…”
Wonder what idealism in practice might mean for American foreign and domestic policy? Read our essay “If An Idealist Ran the White House” at: https://artsforum.ca/ideas/the-wide-world
Copyright © 2020 by John Arkelian.
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