I have loved classic cinema all my life. My favorite actor was Jimmy Stewart. I can't tell you how many times I've watched “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Harvey,” “Vertigo,” or even “Rear Window.” But, somehow I'd never gotten around to seeing “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” Until today.
Tears are coursing down my face as I write this. So heartbroken am I that our country, founded on the ideals we celebrate today, that our Founders risked their reputations to craft, has found itself in the state it is today, and at the crossroads we now find ourselves at.
I've been in politics for over 15 years, and even seeing the lies and corruption up close with my own two eyes, I still feel like Jeff Smith, filled with love for this nation.
I believe in those ideals and principles. I believe in God first and country. Though the Joseph Paines and Jim Taylors of the world try to clog the halls of Congress along with their complicit media conglomerates, I believe in the innate desire of the people to have a representative government that upholds the principles this country was founded upon, and that reflect the genius of our Creator God.
Have we, on the human side, miffed up and gotten it wrong from time to time? Most definitely. Were our Founders perfect? Of course not. And, truly, that's the ingenuity of this system that has lasted 248 years! Despite our imperfections, despite everything, we have a system that has protected us, and that has allowed for the course corrections that have addressed many of those stains upon the fabric of this country.
But, we are in perilous times. The Joe Paines and Jim Taylors are trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the people.
In this election year, if I could beg you to do anything, it would be to be a fact-finder. Forget the so-called social media “fact-checkers;” they answer to Paine, Taylor, and Associates. Do your own due diligence.
As I've said, I have been in rooms where politicians have spoken, only to watch the resulting coverage on PNN (Paine Network News) or TTC (The Taylor Channel), filled with distortions, at best, and lies, at worst.
On my last trip to Washington, DC, I visited some of the monuments Mr. Smith regarded with awe. I sat in the balcony of the Senate gallery, where Senator Smith’s ardent admirers imbued him with the energy to go on. I felt the passion of our Founders, and want us to find our internal fortitude and “Smith spines” to protect what we have.
Despite dire odds, without spoiling the movie’s ending too much, I believe we can overcome as Smith did.
America, we have something special. If we hold to our principles, if we become informed and active participants in this representational system we enjoy, we can have, as Founding Father Benjamin Franklin posited to Mrs. Powel when she asked what we had, a monarchy or a Republic, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
Let’s keep it.
--MCS