Friday, April 6, 2012

Week of April 2, Happy Easter and All Those Holidays

I try not to get too political in this blog because, danger! But I think Rick Santorum is fair game because he SO INCREDIBLY RIDICULOUS that no one I know in my immediate and larger circle of friends is stupid enough to take him seriously. Right? Right, guys?


Anyway, there really is nothing I could say about him that would be any funnier than what John Stewart or Colbert say, so I'll just add to the fray with my opinions shared by all who have a minimum amount of common sense. It seems that social issues, and in particular his position on women, are what will be the cause of his imminent downfall. As John McCain rightly said (and I paraphrase), we need to stop talking about stuff that was resolved 30 years ago (because people are just gonna hate us more), and focus on stuff that matters now, and maybe let's just talk about the economy because that seems to be the only way we'll actually get votes. I actually like McCain, I was bummed he fucked up his candidacy with that lunatic Sarah Palin. Speaking of which, why are we still talking about her again? I actually donated $10 to Obama's campaign after all that shit about women went down, and I've been getting emails from the Obama people for a looong time. Yep, that is what pushed me over the edge.


The Republican party has become the party of fear. It seems that there are two sources of support -- the upper middle class and wealthy, who benefit financially from Republican policy, and the not-very- educated-class who fear the forces of change, diversity and the loss of their jobs. The top layer exploits the fears of the bottom layer to swell the numbers in their favor and in so doing, talk about social issues of yesteryear and the promise of their blue collar jobs. But it's difficult to stop progress, maybe you can delay it a bit, but you just can't stop the inevitable from happening and unfortunately, that's what a lot of fearful people want to do because, well, they're scared.


Now, I will more than likely vote for Obama, but that doesn't mean I think Mitt Romney sucks. In fact, nothing annoys me more than the fact that Americans seem to need a charismatic president, someone that can "connect" with them, to run the country. I don't want no robot in office, but I also don't need to be buddies with my president. In fact, I think it's best for all of us if we keep that line kind of distinct. I also think Romney has had pretty tough waters to navigate. After all, you can sense that he's a somewhat normal person playing against type for the "base." He might look a little uncomfortable, but wouldn't you? If you had to appeal to the Republican base?


The sad fact is that we want our president to be likable. Electability trumps effectiveness in office. So if we vote on electability, then it's no surprise that we end up with mediocre leaders. The skills required to win an election are not necessarily the same skills required to run an office. Sad to say but I don't think it will make much difference to me whether Romney or Obama is in office. I think both of them could do a pretty good job and let's face it, the president doesn't have the same kind of power here as say, a president in France where power is extremely centralized. So in in conclusion, I don't consider myself Democrat or Republican, I just want the right person for the job (for chrissakes).

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