Family and Politics: What a great recipe for angst
So, my brother forwards a rather insightful rebuff by former Sen. George McGovern, aimed at his arch nemesis: Dick Cheney, but also at the ruling gang in general. The article is concise, albeit multi-headed, and fairly even keel. It makes no brash claims that can’t be backed up by cursory research. The rest is conjecture and subjective opinion obviously.
My retort? Here it is…
I would tend to agree with almost everything he (McGovern) says. However, the mess is so bad now, that there’s no real “solution” that will leave things in any better shape. In fact, pulling out could quite easily make things worse. I hate to sound like a GOP buffoon, but it’s the same view shared by a majority of democrats also. Even those that espouse a definitive “time table” of withdrawal, not one has submitted a coherent forecast of what that would leave behind. Most seem to agree that pulling out will guarantee a return trip in the not-too-distant future. I really wish we hadn’t invaded, but alas, nobody asked me before making that decision. So much for democracy. I don’t care for Bush. I’m sure he’s a nice guy to those close to him. He has a sense of humor at times. But as a leader, he sucks. The saddest thing right now is that I still don’t see any obvious candidate that has any real coherent, concise or lucid plan for anything beyond PR soundbytes. I’m sick of soundbytes. It’s all sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher: “wah wah wah wahh…”
However, that said, yes George M has a good head on his shoulders. It’s unfortunate there aren’t more of him (younger) around today, willing to take the helm. We’ve (so far) got Richardson, Kucinich, Edwards, Clinton, Obama, and that drunk uncle from Alaska. On the GOP side, we’ve got Rudy, Romney, McCain, and well, who cares. All second-string backup quarterbacks. No first string players yet. I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest McGovern was immune to faults or failures either.
At this point, it’s looking to be a pretty sad election coming up. Another vote cast in the direction of least-damaging. In fact, I would argue that most of the news commentators and anchors are more interesting and enlightening to watch than the candidates they’re talking about. Oh well, I digress. Nothing new from me either. Same old Dave rant. Politicians have turned into salespeople and I hate salespeople. They’ll tell you anything you want to hear to get a vote (and a job). Not one election has been swayed or moved or nudged by my vote so far. Maybe some day it will come down to my one vote. I’ll keep voting though. Obviously, I don’t have anything better to do. Oh yeah, besides work and family.
In general, the way I view the basic, general, difference of party visions is this:
Republicans tend to view the establishment as just fine. Nothing is broken. Nothing needs fixing. The laws are fine. Taxes are fine. The economy is fine. Life is wonderful. Stop complaining.
Democrats tend to view the establishment as broken. Everything is flawed. Everything needs fixing. Laws need ammendments and rewrites. Taxes are broken. Start complaining.
The rest of us are somewhere in the middle. And those that don’t fit into those three categories are extremists that need to be eliminated. Just kidding. Almost had you there didn’t I?
