GLOBAl POLITICS

“ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL” IS LOCO

Congressional Speaker Tip O'Neill is famous for the cliché, “All politics is local.” What the hell was he talking about? He was from Boston, for god sake, which was – and is – a city with dozens of “locals;” Irish enclaves, Italian ghettos, Jewish neighborhoods, and, oh yeah, Beacon Hill. Where was “local” Boston? Surely not in Harvard yard. Did any of those “locals” share a common view of political issues?

America is not, and never has been, a “melting pot.” It is a savory dish in which every morsel has kept its unique flavor, and to talk about “local politics” is loco. But people facing foreclosure in Nevada because the bread winner has lost a job share the concerns of the family facing foreclosure in Idaho, Michigan, and – yes –in O'Neill's Boston. The wealthy in Beverly Hills share interests with the rich in

Boca Raton, as do Muslims in Chicago and Tulsa, and gays in both Portlands, Maine and Oregon's. What O'Neill ought to have said is, “All politics is about issues – and ideology.”

Not since the conflicts in ideology leading to the Civil War has America been as divided, and, as the outbursts at GOP gatherings reveal, never have our moral values been as sorely tested. In ancient time the Good Samaritan tended to the needs of a wounded Jew who was his enemy. During World War II many Christian Germans gave sanctuary to Jews. The people in my village protested against the vile scheme to relocate our Japanese neighbors to concentration camps, and today the majority of Americans accept gays as their equals before the law. But a virulent minority cheers when told a man without health insurance will die, a military hero who is gay is booed, and they cling to the lie that our president is not a “real American.”

Radio, television, and the Internet enable people all over the nation, and indeed, all over the world, to know what people like themselves care about. Today all politics is world wide and many of us pay as much attention to the election in Tunisia as we do for the race for mayor in our town. Who'd have thought the Internet would create a “one world” planet?