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Some thoughts
on the passing of Paul Wellstone This week’s loss of Democratic Senatorial candidate, Paul Wellstone, in a Minnesota plane crash is both tragic and enlightening. If we believe the epithaphs being spoken about the man, he was known, most remarkably, as a man of integrity who stuck with his convictions. Every big-head mugging for the media in the past few days, Republican or Democrat, had at least this to say about him. We’re given the impression by colleagues who should know, that Paul Wellstone was something of an anomaly in their neck of the woods ...he was a sort of anti-politician. Apparently, sticking with your convictions is something so out of the ordinary in Washington it‘s the first thing you think of pointing out when it happens... My God, look at that strange thing! Of course sticking with your convictions can be either good or bad, depending upon your particular convictions. As we’ve found out, the convictions of some can be very scary. But we have Johann Ashcroft to keep an eye on them (it takes one to know one). Still, by and large, sticking to your convictions is probably a few notches above caving in for money, power, or prestige. Congress has been folding-up for those things for so long it seems natural. It’s so natural, in fact, that when they’re confronted with a man of conviction they’re inclined to make special note when they lose him. Even those coarsened by power and self-interest can appreciate a rare and fragile blossom when they see one. According to Time magazine, "...senators on both sides of the aisle broke down on Friday as they talked about their idealistic fallen comrade" (these would be the same men and women fighting tooth and nail to prevent the shutting-down of the money spigot that a clean election law would bring). But, idealism can have that effect. In the odd symmetry of the human heart, even double-talkers respect an honest man. "Paul was beloved," said a Rebublican Senator, "and with his death he'll be even more beloved." Back-peddler Tom Daschle called him, "...the soul of the Senate." President Bush said he was "...a man of deep convictions." According to ABC News, "He ...took a special interest in the nation's poor, embarking on a "children's tour" in 1997 to focus attention on the need for social programs." The accolades go on like that; extolling this virtue of standing on principle as if it were something only few can do. As if, in the world of real politics there were no righteous choices. As if it were not possible to keep from running like warrior-lemmings into the shelter of George Dubya’s bizarre approval ratings --remember, there was a time in this nation when the majority held that men could own other men. And don‘t we really know, deep-down, that, in these times of mutli-million dollar elections financed and manipulated by an elite, it’s still true? Paul Wellstone seems to have been a man who understood that all the power weilded by government, belongs to the people, not to bankers and corporations. This is, after all, the intent of the constitution. It’s what it boils down to. Or is this now naive? For a man to buck our present drift toward plutocracy...no, for a United States senator to buck it... no, for a Democratic senator to buck it... to voice ideas contrary to the wishes of an elite --well, this is truely unusual and worthy of lauditory comment. The people should take note. |