I don’t have an American Dream
Lee Iacocca wants to know where all the leaders have gone. Personally, I think we killed and ate them.
I do have a response to one portion of the essay, where he knocks the younger generation for their apathy - and it certanly does exist. Once an official is elected, we are stuck with them. Doesn’t matter if you voted for them or not. Hell, it doesn’t matter if you even voted. Yes, I DID vote in the last election, and no, I honestly don’t feel that it meant a damm.
In the corporate world, if a leader is incompentent, power drunk, or just plain nuts, you can fire them. We’ve got a president who, I think, is all three. The best we can do is hope like hell that the next one doesn’t suck as much. Is it any wonder that the 30 and under demographic doesn’t see much point to it all? Votes or no votes, we still have no real power to stop this runaway freight train.
Of course, we can mount a protest…. an excercise in performance art. We can answer the pollsters when they call and register our dissaproval in the ONLY method that modern politicians listen to, but Mr. “follow my instincts” Bush doesn’t even pay attention to that.
We’ve heard a bit lately about how certain governmental employees serve “at the pleasure of the president”. Problem is, the president once served at the pleasure of the american people. This is no longer true. (Maybe it was never true.) Our democracy is a fiction. Our leaders care about two things: gaining power, and keeping power. Any positive acts that arise from this are just happy by-products. I can’t even remember the last time something stupid came out of Washington (or Trenton) and my reaction was something other than “well duh….. what the hell did you expect them to do?”
The last generation that honestly thought they could make things better were the baby boomers, and they frelled things all to pieces. (More on that some other day) Those of us that came after, raised on a saccherine sweet diet of rose-tinted nostalgia and faded ideals, might know that the emperor is naked, but no one (in power) is listening. But you, Mr. Iacocca, came before them, instead of after. Maybe they’ll listen to you.
