Editor, Commonwealth:
I was wondering when there has been a presidential election with as many implications as the one we are about to experience. I went online and used a search engine to look up important presidential elections. I was astonished to discover that the presidential election of 1876 had some of the exact same variables we are facing now.
Rutherford B. Hayes was one of the candidates for the Republican nomination. It took seven ballots before he was chosen as the Republican candidate. Were there some backroom deals and important trade-offs before this process was completed? If you don’t think so, then you must have just returned from one of those head shops in Colorado.
When I hear one of our present-day candidates saying the corrupt things he has been talking about, I wonder if this so-called wealthy and successful business owner ever does something called “read the Book”?
Ever since the 15th Amendment giving African-Americans the right to vote was enacted, there have been some politicians who know that if any party can exercise direct influence and claim this new voting populace, they will control the nature of politics locally and nationally. To prove this point, in nearly every election since the approval of the 15th Amendment, the majority of this new voting populace has voted according to the desires of those who ensure them the right to vote. This phenomenon continued until the election of 1932.
This voting populace did not grasp the true nature of politics, which states that politics is an art and a science. In order to understand politics as an art and a science, one must know how to construct a deal while knowing the value of your vote and with an agenda that changes your circumstances. As long as that populace is satisfied with a handful of government assistance programs, the power of that vote can never be used for meaningful change. And those people will be forever dependent on the will of those politicians playing the same old love song.
I am reminded of the task I experienced the other day working with an at-risk youth who has been in and out of various institutions for failing to make good choices. The young man is very bright, but he made a remarkably dense comment about a so-called free breakfast, which is sponsored through our so-called free breakfast program. His comment was related to the breakfast being something he did not want and the fact that it arrived late and was not hot.
I informed him that was what his books are for. If he uses them properly and begins to overcome his bad habits, then he could lay a foundation so he can choose where he wants to eat his breakfast, at what time he wants to eat his breakfast and what is on his breakfast tray, and he can pay for his breakfast.
The bottom line is quite simple: It does not matter whose image is on the $20 bill if individuals do not have a fair opportunity to earn them legally. It is the politics of dependency that the poor and the disadvantaged cannot afford to repeat.
Charles Brady
Greenville
