6
Wednesday, October 19, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
The Bunkhouse
Chronicle
Craig Rullman
Columnist
Le Fin de Sièile
The French, naturally,
have a phrase for it: le fin
de siècle. The End of the
Century. In its broader con-
text it is meant to encap-
sulate squalls of cynicism,
doubt, spiking religious
fervor, a tinge of helpless-
ness, and general pessimism
during epochs of dramatic
change. It is a kind of phe-
nomenon that seems to settle
over large numbers of people
when the trail ahead seems
dark and rocky, beset with
troubles, and the wagon-
masters not quite up to the
task of guiding the company
through.
This seemingly endless
caterwauling carnival side-
show of an election seems to
have cast many of us into a
kind of End-of-the-Century
mindset. And this discomfit-
ing spectacle truly is relent-
less in its inarticulate, blunt,
and raw depravity — the
natural result, perhaps, of
decades of Jerry Springer
television, failed educa-
tion models, the continuous
pumping of divisive philoso-
phy into the mainstream for
profit, and industrial shout-
ing matches that pass for
heady political analysis on
the evening news.
I’m susceptible. Some
days I want to wear a hair
shirt and flagellate myself
with a cat-o-nine-tails just
to see if it would make them
— that conquering horde of
tweeters, facebookers, and
zealous party hacks — stop
and reconsider what they
are doing to a process and
a nation that deserves far
more dignity and gravitas
than this offering of bloated
political nabobs is capable of
rendering.
There are some press-
ing issues, actually, we
might want to consider.
And whomever it is that
wakes up as our President on
November 9 — I can’t, and
in good conscience won’t,
vote for either one of them
— might want to reflect on
some of these actual issues
with some heretofore unde-
monstrated intellectual hon-
esty and sobriety.
Debt. We don’t hear any
of the candidates discuss-
ing a meaningful strategy to
address this looming catas-
trophe. Debt is the dry rot in
the foundation of our house.
We can’t pay what we owe
without massive sacrifice
and hardship, which modern
Americans, largely insulated
from genuine hardship —
read: starvation and cata-
clysmic homelessness — for
Dr. Thomas R. Rheuben
General, Cosmetic, Implant
and Family Dentistry
~ Over 22 years Serving Sisters ~
We are preferred providers for Delta Dental PPO and Premier,
MODA, Advantage, Pacifi c Source, Cigna and the V.A.
541-549-0109
|
304 W. Adams Ave.
|
Sisters
Check Out Our
New Website
www.bestvueblinds.com
541-549-0968
View quality doors, windows, and window treatments at our showroom
141 E. Cascade Ave., Ste. 201 Sisters, Oregon
A division of Lake View Millworks
nearly a hundred years, are
loathe to even contemplate.
An entrenched and polarized
Congress, which increas-
ingly acts only in its own
best interests, when it acts at
all, means the probability of
our representatives manag-
ing the government within
their means hovers at exactly
zero.
That’s really bad news for
all of us, and even worse for
the generations yet to come.
Government corruption.
If it isn’t an inveterate fact,
it is at the very least a widely
shared perception. That per-
ception is extremely cor-
rosive to the functioning of
government, which rests on
the consent of the governed
and requires at least the pre-
tense of accountability and
justice. Vast swaths of intel-
ligent, honest citizens rightly
suspect that their government
is debased, their representa-
tives dirty, and manipulated
— if not outright owned —
by forces unseen and unap-
proved of by the electorate.
Most disconcerting is that
many in government seem to
believe the citizenry is stu-
pid, and have forgotten —
or never really understood
— their rightful place in the
order of things. Watching
any brief from a “govern-
ment spokesperson,” such
as the White House Press
Secretary, or any of the
designer diplomats at Foggy
Bottom, is an exercise in
enduring the most egregious
displays of condescension
and arrogance. We don’t do
royalty here. Or do we, now?
NuggetNews.com
Credibility. Whichever
candidate lands in the oval
office will have almost one
half of the country believ-
ing they are either an assas-
sin, a treasonous criminal,
a racist, a serial groper, a
closet Bolshevik, or a kind
of Manchurian Candidate
waiting for the trigger phrase
from one dark interest or
another.
Half of the country,
largely good people, hold
those beliefs religiously.
What can either of them
possibly do, at this stage, to
unite fully half of a nation
that holds them in utter con-
tempt? Bread and circuses?
A good war? It isn’t diffi-
cult to forecast even more
divisiveness and the con-
tinued balkanization of the
American electorate four
years from now.
War drums. We have been
at war for 15 years and there
is no end in sight. Having
tossed Jefferson’s notion
that foreign entanglements
were dangerous and counter-
productive, we now find our-
selves responsible for every-
thing and everyone, and our
“national interests” inextri-
cably tied to the results. New
conflicts seem probable, at
least of the fast, extremely
violent, and low-duration
variety. A large-scale war
isn’t far-fetched. Perhaps
with an increasingly nation-
alist and chafing Putin. Or
the Chinese. Or the North
Koreans. Or the Iranians. Or
some, or all of them at once.
What concerns me, as I
sit here contemplating pre-
cisely what size of hair shirt
I actually wear, and I think
it concerns many of us, is
this inescapable notion that
the people we are roboti-
cally installing in high office
aren’t actually up to the job.
So I’ll quote Dr. Richard
Beeman, a professor of his-
tory at the University of
Pennsylvania. “There is a
story, often told, that upon
exiting the Constitutional
Convention Benjamin
Franklin was approached by
a group of citizens asking
what sort of government the
delegates had created. His
answer was: “A republic, if
you can keep it.” The brev-
ity of that response should
not cause us to under-value
its essential meaning: dem-
ocratic republics are not
merely founded upon the
consent of the people, they
are also absolutely depen-
dent upon the active and
informed involvement of the
people for their continued
good health.
F A LL F L A VOR S
W
E
N
to enjoy at The Porch
541-549-EATS (3287)
243 N. Elm St. Sisters
5-9 p.m. Tu-Su • Reservations Recommended
n nd d ed
e d