Sleeping Dogs, Politics, and Politicians
Author: David Rosenak
When Bob Dole was running for President, he asked the
oilman T. Boone Pickens to head up his campaign in Texas.
In return Pickens wanted to write the energy policy that
Dole would put forward. Dole replied "Right there, on the
floor, that's a sleeping dog. Politicians don't kick
sleeping dogs. Bill Clinton doesn't give a damn about
energy and I don't either. We're not either one of us
gooona kick a sleeping dog and so energy will not be an
issue in this campaign. But in case one of us stumbles
over the dog, and if one of us has a problem, you will be
the guy who advises me" (Chicago Tribune 7/14/08).

And it hit me! That's it! That is why our political
system is broken!

It isn't that Bob Dole and Bill Clinton hadn't known at
least since the 1973 "1st OIL CRISES" or the 1979 "2nd OIL
CRISES" that burning up the remaining pools of liquid oil
under the earth's surface wasn't:

1. An economic disaster. The U.S. and the world economy
would be at the mercy of any mood swing by the petty
tyrants who controlled much of the remaining quantities of
the world's supply of oil.

2. A geo-political disaster. We were transferring enormous
amounts of money and power to those tyrants.

3. A National security disaster. Sooner or later those
tyrants and the radicals around them would use the vast
amounts of money we were supplying to them to fund wars
against us or our allies.

4. An environmental disaster. Burning up vast quantities
of oil was emitting vast quantities of pollutants into the
air we breathe and destroying our atmosphere.

5. A dependency disaster. Those pools of oil took billions
of years to form, and they were not endless. They would
over a fairly short period be exhausted, and our reliance
on them would abruptly end.

It wasn't that Bob and Bill didn't know, but the issue was
a Sleeping Dog. They knew. But they didn't care!
Politician's agenda isn't to solve National or World
problems, not even problems that will later become
disasters. Their agenda is to get elected. And once
elected, politicians agenda is to get re-elected. And to
get elected and re-elected they carefully tip-toe around
any Sleeping Dogs, and avoid stumbling over them.

Until the problems eventually blow up in our face, like the
energy problem finally has, and then they look for why it
isn't their fault, and how they can bail us out and be a
hero.

Our elected politicians do the same with other problems.
They watched the mortgage industry run amok for years,
lending money to anyone who would take it, with "adjustable
mortgages" to make the loans affordable to people who
couldn't afford them. And when the mortgages adjusted, and
the required payments doubled or tripled, millions of
people lost their homes, and they precipitated a global
banking crises and a global economic disaster.

And what other Sleeping Dogs are they avoiding? What
problems will we leave for our children, our grandchildren,
and the generations to follow us?

We are overpopulating their world. We are chopping down
the primordial forests and driving other species to
extinction. We are promoting dogma over observation,
reason and science, fostering intolerance for those
different from ourselves, and deliberately squelching
medical research that holds great promise. We have 300
million guns, we have put one percent of our adult
population in prisons, and we are the most violent society
of any developed nation. We continue to pursue failed
policies with regards to narcotic drugs, immigration, and
the Middle East. We continue to solve disputes with other
nations with bombs and destruction, trade our freedom for a
little perceived safety, detain people indefinitely without
proof of wrongdoing, and we are discussing just how much we
should torture those people! . We are creating a nation
that does not manufacture anything, provides enormous
wealth for some and poverty for others, makes even basic
health care inaccessible for millions, and we're building a
mountain of debt for the next generation to repay!

We can do better.

Or are we willing to continue to let the Sleeping Dogs lie?


About the Author:

Read more about this topic and 25 chapters on other thought
provoking topics in the highly acclaimed poignant and witty
new book "Running Amok - Our Grandchildren will Curse Us"
by Dave Rosenak. Check out the web site
http://www.runningamokthebook.com/ Whether you think
the book will start a revolution, or whether you think the
author should stick all of his stinking opinions back where
the sun don't shine, you won't be bored!