The Dangerous Mr. Paul? Part I
Fire and Seedlings
By: Chasse Rehwinkel
I call it “the change effect” but it might as well be termed “the we look doomed effect” or “the all is lost syndrome.” It’s when the old guard no longer seems to be working, when people loose their confidence in how their country is being run, when change becomes a battle cry for the masses and when politics descends to its most volatile and ugly.
The 2008 Presidential Election is an archetypical example of this very situation. As you should already know, economic downturn, duo-warred policies and executive inability left Americans with an extremely sour taste for the way things were being run.
When I look back at what happened—and please try to stay with me on this one—I always envision the same thing, an ancient forest. Now I know that sounds a little crazy, which might actually suit this article, but if you use the analogy of an ancient forest for the last years of George W. Bush’s America then I think the 2008 Presidential Election becomes much clearer.
As any 9th grade biology textbook will tell you, forests grow and develop in a cyclical way. As a forest grows older it becomes more and more difficult for new vegetation to get sunlight and space. Forestry experts, as well as our aforementioned trusty text books, point out that when a forest reaches a certain age it becomes stagnant and, as an ecosystem, it begins to die.
As it turns out, one of the best ways to save an elderly forest is seemingly catastrophic in nature, a fire—and for all those pyromaniacs out there who are just giddy at the prospect of finally discovering a viable excuse for setting stuff ablaze note that a California man was just sentenced to death for starting the Esperanza Wildfire, a fire which killed five firefighters. Wildfires help by clearing away the old vegetation, which gives the previously shut out seeds enough space to grow and develop into seedlings, and eventually, into full fledged forest flora, a process that effectively regenerates the forest.
Think of these wildfires as the recent shocks to our society—economic downturn, multiple wars, political corruption and such—which traumatized the old political environment and paved the way for movements that would have previously been unable to play any sort of major role in the American political landscape.
The movement, or political seedling if you will, that was able to rise to the top of the American political canopy in 2008 ended up being Barack Obama’s extremely well run “Change” campaign.
However, Obama’s victory does not mean that there weren’t other campaigns vying for the top spot in American politics.
In fact a slew of movements, some more extreme then others, struggled for space and light in this tumultuous yet fertile environment.
Other than Obama, the most interesting and arguably most passionate movement was Texas Congressman Ron Paul’s unsuccessful Republican campaign.
To me the Paul campaign represents how complicated and fascinating a political movement can be. And although the election is over, Paul’s race is one that still demands analysis. For Paul not only shows the strength of third party politics, he reveals a passionate and also deeply troubling vein in the American political ecosystem.
In other words, not all seeds sprout luscious new greens and not all seedlings aspire to regenerate the once proud forest.
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