But I finally figured out why the Capitol Building of the United States is topped with a dome.
It's symbolic in a way we don't ever consider.
Dan Bongino is a former Secret Service agent, former candidate for the Maryland Senate and, now, a candidate for Congress.
He is also a Republican.
I've written about him before, mentioning that I met him last year when recording some of his voice spots for campaign commercials in my, then, gig at a local radio station. I got to chat with him briefly after and was left both pleased to meet him and impressed with his presentation.
I liked the guy.
Still do.
Today, he posted the following on Facebook.
The President continues to talk about our government's failures as if he is not its Chief Executive.
We have reached a new low in leadership where our government has disturbingly locked our veterans out of their memorials while allowing an immigration rally on the National Mall which fits their agenda.
Even worse, in conjunction with their Senate allies, they have refused to pay death benefits for our fallen soldiers while still collecting salaries themselves and passionately fighting to hold on to their #Obamacare exemption.
I am eternally grateful for having been born here, in this country and at this time. Our prosperity is not an accident, but it will be a memory if we don't change course in this next election. It's our country, let's take it back.
Just as when you meet someone that your heart tells you that you will love no matter what, I know from having met and talked with Dan that, assuming he has no deep, dark Anthony Weiner schematics hidden in a trunk under his bed, I'll always like and respect the guy.
But a thought was triggered in my head by a thought in his post that I would love to have the opportunity to share with and/or even discuss with him.
The thought expressed in his last sentence.
A "rallying cry" that strikes me as an exercise in futility when it comes to approaching problem solving from that direction.
"It's our country...let's take it back."
What, exactly, does that mean?
Really.
And please don't respond knee jerkingly by countering symbolic, but inane, rhetoric with symbolic, but inane, catch phrases.
Think about it a little.
Dan starts off by chastising, rightly so, "our government's failures".
From there, though, the elusive, mysterious and ever interchangeable "they" take over.
"They locked our veterans out of their own memorial..."
"They allow an immigration rally which fits their agenda..."
"They refused to pay death benefits to our soldiers while they keep paying themselves their salaries..."
Even an elementary school student would be inclined to wonder...
"Who are they?"
Following the path of logic Dan starts us out on in his first sentence, the infamous they is "our government".
Okay.
The government is (not counting the agencies, bureaus, departments, etc that could, and in fact do, fill an entire city) made up of 100 Senators, 435 Representatives, 6 Delegates, a Vice President and a President.
So, if we're doling out the diss evenly and fairly, that puts the blame square on 543 sets of shoulders.
And if that's the case, then the solution to the problem seems, even to that elementary school student, a simple one.
Replace all of them.
The aforementioned symbolic, but inane, catch phrase commonly invoked here would be "throw the bums out."
Much like the pages of the New York Giants playbook, though, the concept looks good on paper, but just don't seem to work in the real world.
Because, as a rule, the result of replacing the "bum" is, to paraphrase The Who, "meet the new bum, same as the old bum."
Meanwhile, back to "they".
To those who hate Barack Obama, they is he.
To those who hate John Boehner, they is he.
To those who hate Democrats, they is them.
To those who hate Republicans, they is them.
To those who just hate, they is anybody who isn't them.
And to those on the outside who still believe that our best days are ahead of us, people like Dan Bongino, they is apparently anyone and everyone standing in the way of them who want they to stop what they are doing.
To them.
Or us.
Or....uh, where were we?
There are still good people who want to do good work and put their country ahead of their own personal interests.
I think Dan Bongino is one of them.
But basic problem solving requires something critical be determined before any progress can be made in solving said problem.
Correctly identifying the problem.
The politics and, in large measure, the politicians of America don't do that anymore.
They simply blame they.
Or them.
Which brings me back to the symbolism of the Capitol Dome.
Round.
As in "...and round".
The solution to any problem requires something else.
Working, in some way, to some extent, together to find a solution.
The politics and, in large measure, the politicians of America don't do that anymore, either.
They waste precious time and solution finding energy figuring out ways to assign blame for the problem.
They can hardly be expected to find the time to make things right.
When they spend so much time vilifying those who made things wrong.
And, whoever they are, they do a disservice to them.
Them is us.
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