{"id":16252,"date":"2016-08-02T03:34:52","date_gmt":"2016-08-02T03:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=16252"},"modified":"2016-08-02T03:34:52","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T03:34:52","slug":"nobility-of-politics-facing-serious-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=16252","title":{"rendered":"Nobility of politics facing serious challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I’ve long believed in the nobility of politics and public service.<\/p>\n

Yes, they’re related. To attain one measure of public service, one must endure the political rough-and-tumble.<\/p>\n

My very first political “hero,” Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, would talk occasionally about politics as being a noble pursuit. RFK imbued in me an interest in the political process just about the time I was coming of age. Then, in a\u00a0tragic spasm of violence in that Los Angeles hotel kitchen after RFK won the\u00a0most important\u00a0political victory of his career, he was gone.<\/p>\n

My love of politics remained.<\/p>\n

This election season, I fear, is going to put my political affection to a severe challenge. I’ve noted already in a tweet that this election cycle just might “cure” me of my political addiction … political junkie that I am.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to be cured. I want to remain engaged in the political process. I mean, heck man, I studied political science in college and came away from my post-secondary education with a keen interest in the process that elects people who purport to become our leaders.<\/p>\n

What can we expect from the next presidential election campaign?<\/p>\n

I fear it will be little of anything truly positive.<\/p>\n

Already I’ve noted that this election cycle is presenting me with the unhappiest set of choices I can remember. I’ve been able to vote in every presidential election since 1972. I voted with great pride in that election, just a couple of years after being discharged from the U.S. Army.<\/p>\n

I was full — if you’ll pardon the pithy language — of piss and vinegar … and I wanted the political process to be full of it, too.<\/p>\n

I’m feeling quite a bit different this time around.<\/p>\n

The two candidates for the highest office in the land don’t fill me with much joy. In fact, one of them — you know the fellow to whom I refer\u00a0— fills me with dread. The other one? Well, she<\/em> still has to prove herself.<\/p>\n

I’m waiting to be won over yet again. I fear, though, that the Campaign 2016 misery index is going to send us all scampering to the tall grass.<\/p>\n

Yes, I’m a political addict.<\/p>\n

I hate the idea, though, of being “cured” of the addiction.<\/p>\n\n

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I’ve long believed in the nobility of politics and public service. Yes, they’re related. To attain one measure of public service, one must endure the political rough-and-tumble. My very first political “hero,” Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, would talk occasionally about politics as being a noble pursuit. RFK imbued in me an interest in the political … Continue reading Nobility of politics facing serious challenge<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[1424,2139,3655,3930],"class_list":["post-16252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-political-news","tag-donald-trump","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-politics","tag-rfk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16252"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16255,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16252\/revisions\/16255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}