A thought about presidents

A thought occurred to me today.  

While some might find this fact revolutionary, I think it’s an interesting thought, and I am going to share it.

Over the past 20 years, we have had three republicans in the presidential race; two presidents, and one candidate.  On the Democrat side, we have had one president and two candidates.

Of the three Republicans, all have been wealthy men.  Furthermore, all three of them have become wealthy through inheritance.  Not one of them has contributed to his own fortune in a significant way.  As a matter of fact, in W’s case, he’s actually done more damage to his fortune than good.

For the Democrats, we have two self made men, and one that comes from money.  One self made man was the president for eight years, and it’s looking like the other will do the same.  Both of these men worked for everything they have ever owned.

The self made men are in favor of social justice.  They support the idea of social responsibility, and contributing to the well being of their fellow men.  They believe that we all have an obligation to invest back into the society that has given us so much.  They understand that the more people we raise up out of poverty, they better we all will be.

The men who argue that you should be able to keep all of what you have earned have never actually earned a dime in their lives.  Does it come as any surprise that all three men oppose an inheritance tax?  They put themselves forth as the defenders of the working man while denying him health care, and giving his boss a tax cut.  They look the lower middle class in the eye, while they pick its pockets.  These trust fund babies and husbands of opportunity could never understand what it means to struggle for a living, they’ll never know how it feels to choose which bill to let go for the month. You couldn’t get much further away from a normal American life.

I wonder, does George W Bush relate with the common man because, from his bedroom window, he can see the servant quarters?

Why then, do the rural blue collar workers of the United States gravitate towards these blue blooded children of privilege, while vilifying the members of their own class who have proven to be exceptional men on their own merit?

How can anyone say, with a straight face, that Obama is an elitist, while McCain is for the common man?  Why was Bush to common man’s president, when his blood runs bluer than Spock’s?

Podcasting, rants, and the distractions of an election year

I know I’ve said that I am trying to keep politics out of my posting and podcasting, and I have failed miserably.

I try to stay out of politics because I do not consider myself to be a partisan; I don’t identify with either of the two parties.  But after the last eight years, I am finding it absolutely impossible to understand the Republican position, or anyone’s endorsment of it outside of a religious context.  

That religious context makes it apropo to this blog.  Therefore, I get to talk about politics.

First, let’s talk about John McCain.  Here is a candidate courting the religious right.  He knows that the Republican base will not get motivated unless there is some powerful Jesus in the room.  To that end, he has tried to portray himself as the defender of morality.  The man who, after his supermodel wife was disfigured and crippled in a car accident (while remaining faithful to him for over five years while he was a POW), left her for a rich heiress fifteen years younger than himself.

This is the guy that says he is the candidate of the working man.  But John McCain owns eight or nine homes.  Whenever you start using generalities when you talk about the number of homes you own,  you are no longer in touch with normal Americans.

Let’s not forget that when McCain was asked what constituted a wealthy American, he said that anyone making under five million dollars a year would be considered middle class.  His representatives later said this had been a joke.  Now I ask you, which is more horrifying; that he is so far out of touch, that he doesn’t even know what an average income is, or that he might have been making a joke at the expense of poor people?

So, we have a rich, legacy Annapolis graduate, with over twenty years in the senate, who says that the self made, son of a single mother, food stamps raised, community organizer from Chicago is an elitist, out of touch with the needs of average Americans.  

What McCain really means to say is that Barak Obama is an uppity negro.  Let’s not mince words about it.  He wants every American voter to remember that not only is he a different color than they are, but in all likelyhood, he is smarter than them too.  This tactic is just another example of Republican fear mongering.

This brings us to Sarah Palin.  She is the perfect choice for the McCain ticket for two reasons; she is a woman, who can diffuse some of the white guilt for not voting for the black guy, and she is a hyper-religious, gun toting housewife.

Some of you may have seen the recent video of Sarah Palin and her cult – I mean, church.  It seems that the Republican VP pick believes in witched, and generational curses.  She also believes that faith healing can regrow limbs.  This is a group of fundamentalists who truely believe they are forming an army in preparation for the End Times.  They make no bones of their ultimate goal to infiltrate and subjugate the federal government, so they can twist it into their own theocratic vision. 

John McCain is a self serving hypocrite.  He shows no shame in pandering to an undereducated base to win the presidency by mod rule.  He and Sarah Palin have repeatedly lied to the American voters, even after their lies were exposed.

The bottom line is that John McCain thinks your an idiot.  I’d say that Sarah palin thinks the same thing, but I think she is an idiot herself, and actually believes the crap she spews.  

Quite frankly, I can not understand how a self respecting, intelligent American could actually believe that these people are good for America.  Please, if you are a McCain supporter for any reason other that the religious hot button issues, please explain to me why you see him as the best choice, and how you justify the things he has said during this election.

The Sale of Integrity

This campaign season has accomplished something I thought was impossible.  After the 2004 election, I thought that nobody could outdo the Bush/Rove lies and slander.  When I saw a draft dodger actually attack a war veteran’s military record, and question the “degree” of enemy fire he might have been under when receiving a purple heart, I thought I had seen the lowest point in American election history.  But the McCain/Palin team has proven me wrong.

John McCain is someone I used to respect.  Ideological differences aside, he was a man of integrity; who could set aside partisan differences to the benefit of the American people.  But the past year has made clear that he is willing to compromise everything in order to become president, including selling his soul to the Republican Party.  He has consistently adopted the very practices that he once fought against.  He has turned what I had hoped would be an election season to return dignity to the American political process into yet another battle for the lowest common denominator.

Can any intellectually honest person actually justify the selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate?  Can we interpret the choice as anything other than an attempt to pander to the fundamentalist base, and the feminists in one fell swoop?  Can we look at the hasty vetting process as anything other than an indication of the sort of thorough research and consideration McCain will invest in policy decisions, should he gain the Oval Office?

After promising to make this campaign an honest and respectful one, about issues and integrity, he has reversed himself and said it is all about personality.  He’s proven that by trying to drum up controversy over pigs and lipstick.  He pledged not to run negative ads, but went back on that promise before the general election had even begun.

McCain seems hell-bent on destroying a good reputation built on years of service to his country.  Yesterday, he went on the network morning shows, to explain that when he has repeatedly stated that, “the fundamentals of our economy are sound”, what he means by fundamentals, is the American worker.  He, and any rational person, knows that he did not intend to redefine the word fundamental to mean American worker.  Anyone with half a brain can see that the economy has crumbled to the point where his assertion that nothing is wrong can no longer be taken seriously.  So, in order to save face, and avoid an admission of guilt, he has redefined his statements. 

Even when he is caught out in a lie, McCain continues to repeat them.  If he knows they are lies, and he knows that the public knows they are lies, why does he continue to repeat them?

The most important lesson the Bush administration has taught America is that truth does not matter, just so long as you repeat the lies often, and loudly.  Eventually, whistleblowers come to look like whiners for constantly harping on what they say, and the public becomes bored with the argument.  After a week or two out of the news cycle, the repeated lies become de facto fact.

Who does he expect to win over with blatant lies and deliberate smears?  Apparently the complete morons he hopes will carry him to the Whitehouse.