{"id":5379,"date":"2015-10-22T06:11:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T10:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5379"},"modified":"2015-10-22T14:16:55","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T18:16:55","slug":"a-few-good-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=5379","title":{"rendered":"a few good men"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Unknown\"<\/a>With Joe Biden finally, officially bowing out of the 2016 presidential race that he was never officially in (much to the semi-contained, private glee of the Hillary Clinton campaign),<\/em> I’m reminded of a fantastic question I read a few weeks ago: why do good men pause?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here we are \u2014 a country in desperate need of wise, courageous leadership… strong, humble, ethical leadership… leadership marked most not<\/em> by consensus or agreement, but rather, leadership marked by its unquestionable integrity.<\/p>\n

I’ve watched my loyal Democratic friends, wanting in general to support a more progressive policy agenda, but cringing at the thought of an ethically-challenged, candidate Clinton. I’ve also watched my loyal Republican friends, wanting in general to support a more conservative policy agenda, but unsure if they could ever get on board for a President Trump.<\/p>\n

And then we see VP Joe Biden and House Rep. Paul Ryan \u2014 a Democrat and a Republican \u2014 but two men regardless of partisan agreement who are best known for their authenticity and integrity. They are good men. However, Biden bowed out of a potential presidential run\u2026 and Ryan is reluctantly willing to run for Speaker of the House only after weeks of prodding and still with conditions. Good men\/women are avoiding the higher\u00a0office. Good men are pausing.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read the words of Salena Zito, a writer for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review\u2019s blog. Her insight is excellent\u2026 why are good people pausing?<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018One hesitates because of the grief of a family broken by loss, the other because of the commitment to a new family\u2019s bright future,\u2019 [Bruce] Haynes [GOP media expert] said, adding both are good and noble reasons for reluctance.<\/em><\/p>\n

At the same time, these hesitations, coming from both sides of the aisle, serve as glaring symbols of another problem: Too many good people don\u2019t want to be in politics anymore.<\/em><\/p>\n

Haynes said that\u2019s because they are turned off by what they see and hear.<\/em><\/p>\n

The best do not want to put their families through the over-reactive, faux outrage ridiculousness of social media, which too often bleeds into regular media coverage. If you look at someone cross-eyed, it\u2019s going to become a thing.<\/em><\/p>\n

The zealots \u2013 both on the hard right and the hard left \u2013 are intent upon destroying anyone for anything that might be considered a slight to their cause. This all-or-nothing online thuggery expects every candidate to agree all of the time \u2013 and it\u2019s ruining governing for us all. Governing actually does matter.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our system no longer bestows distinction upon those who serve. It devours them\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Biden and Ryan are two of the quintessential good guys in American politics, said Haynes: \u2018Politics aside, no one questions whether or not they are good people.\u2019 They are the kind of good people we want to run into the fire and help.<\/em><\/p>\n

There was a time in this country when folks like this set aside personal considerations and accepted what they believed to be the honor of serving.<\/em><\/p>\n

But the personal considerations have become more fraught. The take-no-prisoners mentality evident among the zealots on both sides extends past once-common professional boundaries. The honor of serving may now be counterbalanced by the burden of almost certain character assassination and unwarranted family stress.<\/em><\/p>\n

Good people have reason to pause. That, perhaps, is the greatest indictment of our system today.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Such is a sad, sobering reality.<\/p>\n

Said Biden in his Wednesday announcement, \u201cWhile I will not be candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully to influence as much as I can where we stand as a party and where we need to go as a nation.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Go Joe, go. Go Ryan, too. While we need men like each of you, we understand why you pause. That makes us sad.<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Joe Biden finally, officially bowing out of the 2016 presidential race that he was never officially in (much to the semi-contained, private glee of the Hillary Clinton campaign), I’m reminded of a fantastic question I read a few weeks ago: why do good men pause? Here we are \u2014 a country in desperate need … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “a few good men”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5379"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5385,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions\/5385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}