POLITICS AND NATURE

Here We Go Again

December is wonderful. Holiday times bring feelings of family, hope, and peace to mind. What would the final month of the year be without last ditch debates by the Republican and Democratic presidential hopefuls? No wonder people are worn out by a political system depending on giant sums of cash and endless debates. Alan Keyes showed up, which is something of an anomaly. Kucinich and Gravel aren't invited tomorrow.

The Des Moines Register, according to its political reporter, Tom Beaumont, required either a full time staff in Iowa or registration of at least 1% of voter support of the last Register poll.

Even I had a hard time watching the entire debate and I am a lifelong political student, so I'm not surprised no one else wanted to watch. Well, get used to it cause it is going to be a long political year. What I did see was a bit disappointing. 

That being said, I believe it will be tragic if almost any of the Republicans win the presidency again. It is obvious that I am not like others because one of those focus groups they have thought Freaky Fred Thompson showed leadership by refusing to raise his hand on a question about global warming. It's just downright weird. Beaumont made the point that Thompson signed on for the rules of the debate and querying with a show of hands was in those rules. Odd.

The moderator was not the best pick either. And something really bizarre was on her face. I don’t know much about make up but it was like some kind of red rouge or maybe she was burned in the tanning booth or she is just naturally, un-naturally looking rosy cheeked. I’m telling you, it was abnormal. Not only was she dull and she gave the impression that she was getting some kind of perverse pleasure in attacking these people, one of whom may be the 44th president of the United States of America. Spooky really.Not only were here cheeks bright red, but the color splotches went up onto her forehead. Maybe she got hives or a nervous rash. I thought maybe it was my television yet none of the contenders exhibited similar symptoms.

To let it be known before I go on, I have voted Republican in the past. Leadership is something I have written about quite often in the journal but the lack of leadership astonishes me. They want to fight and the main round is going to be ugly. Prepare for it. And if the Democrats don't get ugly, it seems likely whoever wins their nomination process is going to be bruised, battered, and bloody before it is all over.

The Good Things

Even if McCain wins, which is seriously doubtful, or Huckabee, which would be a shock but is beginning to look possible, the big boys from the sidelines, who have been fighting since Dick Nixon broke his promise and re-entered the biggest ring in the world. Only Huck and McCain offered they would be president of the entire nation, everyone else said those of us on the left suck and the competition was over who would drown the feds in the now famous proverbial bathtub.

Duncan Hunter did a good thing by asking voters to buy American. Nothing wrong with those thoughts at this Christmas Season.

I like John McCain. His battle is over, his strength is gone, people just don't care about the old man anymore and he will enter the annals of history as Barry Goldwater before him. In a speech recently he threw in Bruce Babbit and Mo Udall, two others who ran from Arizona for the presidency and lost. In it, McCain almost gave up his ghost right there on stage. Not from fright but from the knowledge built over a lifetime in politics that showed him the writing on the wall. There is no Karl Rove attacking his character this time around, just an electorate desperately seeking new paths for governance.

My inability to appreciate the strength of front runners is nothing surprising. Normally in the primaries I support underdogs. Were I registered as a Republican, I might vote for Huck, the man from Hope. I think that's funny. The person the conservatives hate more than life itself was from the same hometown. I sat in a schoolyard in Hope Arkansas in 1992; playing guitar and writing in a journal about my thoughts on then president elect William J. Clinton. It was a funny little side trip I may write about someday. But that is another story.

Huck is looking to bring people together. I believe him. Washington will probably eat him alive but he's had the courage to stand up during the Republican debates and give forthright answers not twisted with strange logic and downright iratic behavior meant to suck up to the base despite his past. This in sharp contrast to Mighty Mitt, who looks like he wants to be president so bad he may hold multiple séances to resurrect the souls of J. Edgar, Mayor Daley the elder, and Tricky Dick if he thought it might garner him some votes and push him over the edge of the mafia don, the actor, and the now bothersome Podunk preacher.

I can see why people support Rudy Giuliani as well. He speaks his mind; at least it appears to me as if he does. Of course, again in the course of full disclosure, I agree with Rudy on social issues for the most part.

It is the better part of liberty if the government stays the fuck out of individual lives. Government does not belong in people’s houses or on their property, if it can be avoided, let alone in their bedrooms or doctor’s offices. Also, I am pretty much a fiscal conservative. I just don’t believe any conservative has reduced the size or scope of government and I doubt they ever will. They merely funnel the spoils of power to their cronies and they want to create a massive police state based on centralized power, prisons, and enhancing criminal prosecution. That is my view.

On the Whole

Romney may well be the nominee for the Grand Old Party. It won’t present any great shock if, once he walks away, trophy in hand, he begins pandering to the rest of the electorate by sidestepping issues and cruising to a victory built on the sand of a broken, insincere, ideology. At least W believes the garbage spewing out from Pennsylvania Avenue. There is some twisted form of honor in that.

Whoever wins, the Republican candidates fall over each other boldly asserting their fiscal acumen. Each claims he will save it all, fixing all budgetary challenges the nation faces.

None found it important to mention it was a Republican controlled Congress soaking the people with the help of a Republican President over the past seven years, which put this country into the financial situation it is in now. It is unbelievably disingenuous.

Romney views the horizon instead of the financial storm over head, a clever method of avoiding questions. That, of course, is neither here nor there.

A Republican president will also: eliminate taxes, reduce spending, build up the military, create national healthcare, kill all terrorists, suspected terrorists, known terrorist associates, people who may have once had a terrorist (bad) thought, liberals (known to be terrorists) and anyone else who questions the State.

Fred Thompson, in a popular quote from the debate, laughed about his poverty. Then he whined that the poor wealthy Americans are unfairly taxed.

Duncan Hunter, it’s amazing how often he comes up with intelligent tidbits, talked of the most unfair tax of all, the interest on the debt.

Alan Keyes could be categorized as insane.

Everyone on the stage is for free trade, except Tancredo and Hunter, who act like they hate other nations and they don’t believe in environmental harm.

Ron Paul is more and more like Ross Perot as time moves on. At least if he runs as an independent, he’ll soak votes from whichever of these eerie, greed mongering spooks who think the most important thing the government does is protect corporate power.

There is a general belief that the free market will fix global warming, and by inference, environmental problems as a whole. Because, of course, the market has worked so well thus far.

I have to give it to Mitt the Man. He sounded confident about global warming and it generates amazing and cool opportunities to restructure our knowledge base and to create jobs in an exciting alternative energy field, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, building on environmental successes, and moving the nation forward.

They all support choice in schools and they tell us parents aren’t involved. They’ll fix this too.

Does It Matter?

One of these men could be the next president and people need to care about it. Political parties give people the chance to avoid the party they disagree with during primaries.

Seeing them all together gives a view of ideology and what is likely to be taking place if one of these men take the oath of office. If nothing else, a quick glance at the past two presidents show how important this entire exercise is and what a privilege it is to take part in it. Many pundits after the debate observed how boring and useless it was. I disagree. I think these debates illustrate character and leadership qualities like knowledge and experience.

Thompson explained what he would do first thing in office (they all had this exercise), he explained that he would tell everyone what to do and thus fix the budget for the future, then he would tell the Congress that he got a mandate (I don’t know what qualifies for a mandate anymore but frankly, Fred looks like an idiot and once again, he must have paid no attention to what happened to the last guy who had a self-proclaimed mandate—and Fred hasn’t even won a primary yet). I’m just amazed.

I disagree with the worldview espoused by this Republican leadership and I believe they will prove disastrous to the nation and the world for the following reasons:

I don’t think any of them will take on Social Security any more than the current administration has.

Their pro-war beliefs have not been challenged and the notion of “winning” this war on terror has not been explained, leaving the nation in a never-ending conflict endangering personal liberty.

I disagree with their views on the right to choose, except for Giuliani.

I don’t think they’ll take on interests and move the nation forward to conserve the environment.

I have doubts they will encourage fiscal conservative ideas.

They are all still battling Roosevelt and Johnson and they paint a picture of all of us on the left as extremists because rhetoric works.

They haven’t taken on special interests thus far, why would this change?

A blind faith in market ideology (which has been perverted into corporatism instead of pure capitalism) leads to serious problems.

Effective governmental reform can only come through the use of government. They’re not going to get rid of the IRS or the NEA, just reality.

In the end, I would personally pick John, Rudy, Mike and then Mitt but I have no say in this primary so there you have it. The campaign has not even begun. And it is about the future. The general election should be fun.