DeeGeesLifeBlog ~ Life as Art ~ Or is it Heart?

And The Call Goes Forth For More Mr. Smiths

Some seventy-five years ago in 1939, the world was pretty much mired in the same situation in which it finds itself today. Just twenty-one years earlier, World War I had ended catastrophically with 37,000,000 casualties resulting in a devastated Europe, with a rising influence on the world’s stage emanating from the United States. The League of Nations had been formed in 1920 following the Treaty of Versailles, and by the time Hitler began flexing his political muscles on the German nation in the early 1930s, membership in the fledgling League had risen to 58.

Ultimately, Germany withdrew and the onset of World War II was proof that the League had failed in its primary purpose. WW II became the deadliest military conflict in history, resulting in the deaths of more than 60,000,000 people. As for the League of Nations, a swift change of name at the end of the war to the United Nations perpetuated the belief that a global body could control the evil lurking in the hearts of men.

Switching gears to a more positive note, 1939 was also a watershed year for the movie moguls of Hollywood, who collectively produced, directed and distributed, movies of such quality and entertainment value, that 1939 has been labeled the greatest year in film history. 

Top movies of 1939: 1) Gone With The Wind; 2) The Wizard of Oz; 3) Ninotchka; 4) Jesse James; 5) Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; 6) The Hunchback of Notre Dame; 7) The Old Maid; 8) The Rains Came; 9) The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle; 10) Goodbye, Mr. Chips; 11) Another Thin Man. 

Ranked number five, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington features James Stewart playing Jefferson Smith, a somewhat naïve man who is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn’t back down. What impresses throughout, particularly in that climactic, rousing twenty-minute sequence in the Senate with Jefferson Smith’s constant, unfaltering filibuster, is how it really is a patriotic kind of bravura to be standing up for what’s right; in other words, here is how it should be done in getting things accomplished in government. Despite the corruption surrounding Smith, he fights it all the way to his final filibuster, which includes a passionate reading from the Constitution. The events of last week saw Jimmy Stewart back in the form of Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, Jeff Sessions, Jim Inhofe, Marco Rubio and I’m sure I’ve left out many others, fulfilling the pledge of Mr. Smith.

We certainly elect our politicians with great expectations, but when they get up to Washington something happens to them. They morph into something that We The People who sent them up there don’t recognize anymore, and it’s a disease that cuts across party lines. Certainly the track record of Congress over the past 50 years or so has more than enough of its share of internecine corruption as evidenced by the number of scandals brought to light during that period. Lord Acton, British historian and moralist, in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887, put it this way: Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. So here we are in 2013 with a Congress, Supreme Court, and nation split 50/50, mostly along party lines. We’re stuck in neutral with abysmal leadership at all levels, while ranting, raving senators, justices and representatives hurl fractious barbs at each other across the aisles. Which would all be well and good were it just business as usual as it has been in the past. But it isn’t anymore. We The People are better informed about the goings on in DC than we have ever been heretofore (notwithstanding the low information voters) and we are becoming better acquainted with the bills being introduced for passage, than are the very people we elected to do it on our behalf. We see the extent of the corruption that bedevils the elected stewards of government, and we’re not prepared to take it anymore.

We’re mad as hell, and we’re not gonna take it any more!

We need more Mr. Smiths like Ted Cruz etal, to take up the cudgel and trudge off to Washington and change the United States and the world. Not to embrace power for power’s sake, nor to become ultimately corruptible; but to bring We The People into the power equation before it’s too late. In the famous rhyme of causality For Want of a Nail, a kingdom was lost through a seemingly innocuous event, to whit:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

In 1938 the Prime Minister of England, Neville Chamberlain, famously returned to England yelling peace in our time only to die before he saw the full consequence of Hitler’s true intent. What he and the rest of Europe needed was a Mr. Smith, and some would argue that they got one in the name of Winston Churchill, but that was after the fact, not before. We need more Mr. Smiths in Washington the likes of Ted Cruz, and we need them now before the world goes to hell in a hand basket. Let not our future generations even think of saying of us: For want of a Mr. Smith …

As for the title One Law For The Rich ~ Another Law For The Poor …Continues here..