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For my first post of substance on this, my new and shiny blog, I thought I'd pontifamicate on the presidential race. That is, afterall, how I got into blogging to begin with (four or so years ago when I signed up with the then-unknown Howard Dean campaign).
Sadly, there's no Howard Dean this year, not in name or conviction. Well, okay, that's not entirely true. I can't in good faith say that Dennis Kucinich (D) and Ron Paul (R) are lacking in conviction. But even if either of them manages to garner any sizeable support, let's face it: generally speaking, their views and opinions are too extreme to ever win them the nomination.
Of the candidates with any chance at winning their parties' nominations, there are to me two big giant stinking disappointments: Barack Obama and John McCain.
Obama was hailed as the great hope of the Democratic Party. He was going to be the next Great Communicator. He was elegant. He was tall. He was fresh. He was intelligent. He was Black. And, yes, he was articulate and clean. Then he jumped into the presidential race and turned into just another politician, playing the polls and getting into press release wars with other candidates over who has the most money and who has the nicest ancestors. I expected as much from Hillary, but with all the hype had hoped Barack could "raise the level of debate." So much for substance.
And then there's John McCain, once considered the single pillar of candor and honesty in Washington. Now? Yep, just another politician playing the polls. I may actually have considered voting for him if he'd been the same kind of candidate this time around as he was in 99/00. Instead, he's taken an obvious right turn towards the conservative Christian wackaloons (I use this word to distinguish from all the perfectly rational and actually compassionate conservative Christians out there).
I had hoped that this election would restore at least a shred of decency to national politics in this country, but I'm running low on hope. Although, if Big Al were to change his mind...
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you are correct sir! Ron Paul has never been convicted for anything. but a bunch of those neocons should be convicted for lying to the american public and getting the country into an unconstitutional war.
ReplyDeletego Ron Paul,
no convictions, no indictments.
Unfortunately, we have been railroaded into believing that there are only two options out there R and D.
ReplyDelete“The whole liberal/conservative paradigm is nothing more than a front operation to convince Americans that they have a choice while keeping them at each other’s throats. Ever heard of “divide and conquer?”
I think that the majority of American's would identify with a party that was based more in the middle, I know I would at least. We need term limits and instant run-off voting to order to accomplish that goal. Of course the people in power are not for that.
Agreed. We also need real campaign finance reform (i.e. primary and general election campaign spending limits) before we have fair/legitimate elections again.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was just rereading my post and noticed a glaring misstatement. I said that Kucinich and Paul have views that are too extreme to ever get them nominated or elected. What I should have said is that their views are perceived as too extreme to ever get them nominated or elected. Big difference there.