What I like about America is that it has two wings. Whenever it gets lopsided, or begins to fly in circles, the people always seem to know that it’s time to give a little more power to the other wing. That done, the Eagle levels herself and flies a little straighter. That is, until the other wing gets out of control!
Every healthy bird has both a right and a left wing. Things get precarious when the right wing wants to cut off the left wing, or when the left wing wants to cut off the right. Yes, history tells us that we have prospered and flown well because we are a nation with two wings. We have business and we have labor unions. We have merchants and we have consumer advocates. We have industry and we have environmentalists.
We all know that the right wing would not have given African-Americans and other minorities their civil rights, or women the right to vote. Yet, the Eagle flew higher, because there is also a left wing. Likewise, if it were up to the right wing, in the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt, we would never have had Social Security and later, Unemployment Compensation and Medicare. On the other hand, if it were entirely up to the left wing we would likely buy more good things than we could ever hope to pay for; and, from time to time, we’ve bought some downright foolish things.
Every now and then the right wing and the left wing look a lot alike. That’s because, given enough time the Eagle brain says, “Hey, you two, we need both of you if we’re going to fly high and free.” Once in awhile the left wing catches up to the right wing or the right wing catches up to the left wing. Still, it usually takes about 50 years before one wing will say to the other, “You know, that was a pretty good idea.” That is why few of us are agreeable to cutting off a wing. You simply cannot trust a one-winged Eagle to fly as it should.
The longer we watch the Eagle fly, the more convinced we are that it needs both a right and a left wing. We’ve seen those times when it flew with mostly a left wing --after a while, it got to looking silly. Likewise, we’ve seen that bird fly with just its right wing --it’s an equally funny-looking spectacle in the American sky.
I like comedian and political satirist Mark Russell. You know, he’s the guy on Public Television who plays the piano with the stars and stripes and sings funny songs about the politicians. He’s been doing it for over 30 years. I heard Mark being interviewed about his thoughts on our field of candidates in the last Presidential election. His thoughts, “We’ve got a pretty good group of people running this time; I could live with any of them. The only thing I ask is that whoever controls the White house doesn’t control congress --or vice-versa.” I don’t understand why Mark would feel that way, because whenever that big bird starts flying with just one wing it’s always good for a lot of laughs.
Moderation is a wonderful thing. The Bible says, “And every man that strives to achieve is temperate in all things” (1 Corinthians 9:25). I expect the founding fathers, knowing the extremes of individuals, sought a system of “checks and balances” that could throw the extremes together for an average, creating an Eagle with two wings. After all, everybody knows that a one-winged bird can’t fly. But, Mark Russell is right: politics and politicians are funny to watch --especially when they’re trying to fly with just one wing.