The Decline of Political Courage

[illinoisprogressive]

Earlier this year Hillary Clinton held a public vote to decide what her presidential campaign song will be.

The winner turned out to be "You and I" by Celine Dion ("I'm always rising up/I never want to come back down"). The vote totals were not released, as far as I can tell, and given that the Dixie Chicks were among the contenders, it's possible that there was a politically protective component built into the process.

As the weeks went by and I kept getting news releases about the contest, it seemed to me that there was something about this that symbolized what has happened to our political system. John Kennedy managed to choose "High Hopes" as his campaign song without either a public vote or a focus group. Hillary Clinton doesn't want to take a stand on even such an inconsequential matter. Do we really want our officials to pander to us so completely?

One of the reasons this incident stuck in my mind was the discovery that public officials taking tough stands in the face of adverse public opinion has become so rare that an award created to recognize them has begun having difficulty finding any.

http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2007/Jul-25-Wed-2007/opinion/15661909.html