Talkin' Some Shiite

Sunday Morning Column-Talkin’ Some Shiite
Sunday, October 12, 2008

Time to take off the gloves and get down to bidness. No punches being pulled today, just callin’ ‘em like I see ‘em, so here goes.

The tone of the presidential campaign has reached a new low in American politics. I have resigned myself to the fact that the opposition party will now always lob personal attacks at the party in power, conservatives calling liberals a bunch of unpatriotic namby-pambies who don’t want to win wars, and liberals calling conservatives a bunch of inbreeds without the ability to harbor a thought of their own unless Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity gives them permission. But the nastiness has now turned overtly racial and racist, and it is past time that those who deserve it get called out.

Fortunately, in our society today you can no longer come right out and spew a bunch of racist bullsheet directly, unless of course it’s directed at Arabs and/or Muslims, then it’s still acceptable. And gay and lesbian bashing is still accepted in most circles, but aside from that the perpetrators of bigotry and hate have to speak in code, which they have become quite adept at doing.

Obama is a terrorist, his middle name is Hussein, he is a Muslim, and oh yeah, did we mention that you can’t trust him and he scares us. Us being small-minded, large gut, and pea-brained White people who are threatened by a Black man taking the reins of power and are lashing out in a desperate attempt to prevent their monochrome world from crashing in around them.

As stated, personal attacks and deionization have become par for our political course, but this crosses that line and delves smack into the world of racist hate speech. If McCain and his pit bull Palin don’t come out and denounce it in plain language with no nuance, they are guilty of playing to the racist Republican base and should be called out for that. Not all Republicans are racist, but many racists are Republicans, and that is a dirty little secret that has been known for a long time by those who aren’t white, and by those who simply open their eyes to the way things really are.

Speaking of Sarah Palin, has there ever been a national political figure more unfit for the job than “this one”? She is an empty blouse, a typical figurehead who advanced through the political ranks on charm and looks, which is indicative of the nature of our electoral politics, we elect simpletons based on likeability and renounce intelligent people as elitist. She obviously knows little to nothing about national politics, as evidenced by her lame attempt to describe the Bush foreign policy that has only been responsible for the biggest military blunder in our nation’s history and thus widely discredited. Her winking and speech mannerisms are smug and inappropriate for someone aspiring to such high office, and quite frankly just hearing the sound of her voice makes me cringe. I have no doubt that she will go down as the worst vp pick of the last century, or at least since we started paying attention to vp picks.

McCain has run a basically inept and incompetent campaign, and his pick of Palin just shows that he has allowed his candidacy to be hijacked by the Bush neo-con operatives who while they take much credit as political geniuses, were barely able to defeat two of the weaker Democratic candidates in Gore and Kerry in the last two elections.

Speaking of candidates, there is actually one candidate who has both come out against the irresponsible and with the extra pork included, immoral bailout package, and also has come out against not only the Iraq war but the ineffective campaign being waged in Afghanistan. What’s that you say, it doesn’t sound like either Obama or McCain, who both supported the bailout and who support keeping our troops in Asia waging endless battles with no definition of victory or any sort of exit strategy? Well, that’s because the candidate with the most sensible fiscal and foreign policy is none other than Ralph Nadar.

Ooooh, I can hear the liberals out there shuddering as I write that. Ralph Nadar of course is the devil incarnate who tossed the 2000 election to George W. and changed the course of American history. Of course they leave out the fact that Al Gore ran away from a then still popular president and didn’t really distinguish himself greatly from his opponent, and by doing so gave many thinking and caring people reason to look elsewhere. They also leave out how four years later they nominated John Kerry, probably the weakest Democrat since Walter Mondale. Ralph Nadar isn’t to blame for George W, and while Nadar admittedly has no chance of winning this election, it is a shame that we are stuck with a system that marginalizes candidates such as Nadar, Ron Paul, and Dennis Kucinich, who have some pretty good ideas and could provide our debate with a needed jolt of reality.

And lastly, the debates, or what passes for debates in our present age. My idea of a debate has always been one where an issue is thrown on the table and then discussed, point-counter point. These debates are simply a game of talking point ping pong where each candidate says, “well, that’s an excellent question” then proceeds to completely ignore it in favor of whatever it is they want to talk about, followed by their opponent making a lame wisecrack about them and then launching into their own diatribe while the moderator sits there like a substitute teacher just trying to get to the end of the day without having to get up from his desk or write anyone an office referral. The best part is the post-debate wrap up, where each candidates supporters proclaim their guy the winner, and the sounding board media simply restate what we just heard the candidates say 30 minutes ago. I don’t know who the winner is in any of these debates, but I know that the loser is the thoughtful American voter who wants to hear discussion of issues that affect our lives, taxes, fiscal policy, foreign and domestic policy, energy and environmental policy, education and health care.

So much more to rant and ramble about, but I’ve monopolized enough of your time for one Sunday morning, so I’ll save the rest for another column. But I didn’t even touch the bailouts, both past and future, that figure to drive our nation deeper into bankruptcy while doing little to get the economic engine humming again, or the folly of our military strategy, our lack of a comprehensive energy policy, health care plan, or ability to educate our young people. As comedian Yaakov Smirnov used to say, “what a country!” What a country indeed, and despite all that ails us, this is still a great place to live and enjoy our lives, despite all the shenanigans that go on and the hooligans that run the show. And if the Dodgers get it together and beat the Fightin’ Phils tonight in the playoffs, all will once again be right with the world. Until next time, this is the ordinary average guy signing off.