I'm Just Sayin' - The Church of Waddling Ducks

Talk about it

Soren Kierkegaard told a parable of a community of ducks waddling off to duck church to hear the duck preacher. The duck preacher spoke eloquently of how God had given the ducks wings with which to fly. With these wings there was nowhere the ducks could not go and there was no God-given task the ducks could not accomplish. With those wings they could soar into the presence of God. Shouts of “Amen” were quacked throughout the duck congregation. At the conclusion of the service the ducks left, commenting on what a wonderful message they had heard, and waddled back home with no intention of acting on the duck preacher’s inspiration.

It’s an amusing little story with some interesting applications today. To me, it sounds a lot like the pontifications of politicians today. The people listen to the promises and the great heights we can soar to as a country or how the government can provide everything for everyone. Also, we are told to not worry about how to pay for it nor turn any attention to the consequences of their actions and legislation. We enthusiastically cheer their promises and commitments, and then we vote for them. When the voting is done, the voting public waddles back home with no intention of holding them to their promises or making them accountable for their actions. Thus, the political class has no intention of implementing the inspiration they had heaped upon an unsuspecting public. They know that it’s not about their actions but only about what is promised, so it doesn’t matter if they uphold those promises.

This is a direct result of our political system, which over the last century has spawned a “political class” of elites who spend their time thinking of ways and means to implement their particular ideology because “politicians know better.” Too many elected officials come to this belief in themselves; not because they are evil or want to destroy the system, but because they get so entrenched in Washington, D.C. that they can’t look outside the beltway to relate to most of us out here.

We are busy trying to take care of our families and our jobs. Every few years we decide to elect some folks and then try to have the faith in them to do the right things for the good of the country. Unfortunately, our elections have too much similarity to the “Church of Waddling Ducks;” not because we don’t care, but because we are busy and intend to leave the political work to those we have elected.

What has come of this system is too much power and money being concentrated in Washington at the hands of elected officials who become more beholden to lobbyists and political interests rather than what is good for the country. To change that, three things would need to happen in order to take the power away from the political elites. Those three things are:

1. Term limits so no one can become a “career politician.”

2. A Constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget every year.

3. Washington must use no more than 20 percent of GDP to balance the budget.

To accomplish these three things will take something similar to what happened in 1776 – an uprising of political will by the people (minus the muskets and swords). I’m just sayin’.

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“America’s corporate and political elites now form a regime of their own and they’re privatizing democracy. All the benefits - the tax cuts, policies and rewards - flow in one direction: up.

– Bill Moyers

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DuWayne Paul of Alexandria is a regular contributing columnist for the Echo Press.

Tags: opinion, columns