Thursday, October 29, 2015

Meanwhile, In America...




Barry Blitt via The New Yorker
...The Politics are harshing my Zen.

Normally, I would not post any irreverent image of President Lincoln, but in this case, I can make the exception with a clear conscience.  If he had already been restive in his tomb due to the likes of Bush 43, Nixon, and less famous republicans who have disgraced varying degrees of Public Office, he is surely retching and spewing at the likes of the gop's frontrunners now.  Actually, knowing President Lincoln's sensibilities and esteem for his countrymen, he is probably more likely weeping with sorrow at what has happened to the nation he worked so hard to save.

How did The Party Of Lincoln end up with a Sideshow Barker as its Candidate? It was inevitable, I guess, when they allowed a loudmouthed bigot as their spokesman early on and not only legitimized the threadbare credentials of the Alaskan Airhead, but continue to countenance her.  The republicans also like to invoke conservatism and Reagan as if they are both Sacred Talismans, conveniently forgetting things like the skyrocketing unemployment in 1981, and the fact that St. Ronald slept through not only Cabinet meetings, but even an audience with the Pope, and that conservatism is, at best, an Ideal. It can't be an absolute prescription for a diverse, multicultural nation like the United States of America.

Of course, some polls have a different frontrunner, the equally alarming anti-science, history-rewriting doctor whose flip comment regarding the recent Oregon school shooting flummoxed even his Fox News hosts.  In typical somnolent, sotto voce style,  the good doctor vowed that he would never have been so meek as to have been slaughtered by a gunman without a fight.  He would have rallied everyone by intoning, "Hey guys.  Everybody attack him.  He may shoot me, but he can't get us all."  And then...he laughed. (abt. 5:02)  But you know those republicans; they hate political correctness.

Jeb! has begun to sound like the exasperated Student Council president who is upset because of student apathy about Sixties Theme Dress-Up Day.  As he reminded us not so long ago, he has "a lot of really cool things that [he] can do other than sit around and be miserable listening to people demonize [him]", leaving everyone wondering, of course, why he doesn't simply Go Off And Do Them. One can only imagine how many phone calls Barbara Bush has endured since June that have started off with "Mo-om! It's just not Fair!"

Don't worry; I won't go on.  I can't.  It's exhausting, isn't it?  And I have to keep telling myself that Last Time, Herman Cain was enjoying his Moment In The Sun.

(I know, who?  Oh, yeah...that one guy.)

It's all so very disappointing, though.  Sigh.

Let's say you're a registered republican; who do you vote for?  Play along in Comments.



(Readers: please remember that I do not, on principle, capitalize the republican party or any of its synonyms. It's My Thing.)

9 comments:

  1. I'm afraid that our own "dear" governor is looking more & more like the sensible pick for sane republicans. I can't believe I just wrote that sentence. I have a good friend who is a republican - I think I'll ask him what he thinks. I honestly feel really sorry for them. On the other hand, they just need to start behaving like they really believe in that radical Jew from long ago (like they pretend to) - then they'll see things the way I do. Heh.

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    1. Bug--Sane Republicans--are there any? Where the heck are they, and why aren't they stepping up to blow the whistle on this baloney? Kasich is definitely trying to be the Grownup In The Room, but we Ohioans know that he's hiding some unsavouries in his cloak.

      I'll probably never stop marvelling at the way the republicans invoke Jesus and Christianity, yet fail to follow through in their actions. A Great Paradox.

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  2. I read the quote from the Alaskan Airhead and want you to know that as stupid as that statement was, she even "outstupided" herself last week. After the Congressional Committee finished their 11 hour Inquisition of HRC, Palin called Rep.Gowdy and told him that the entire investigation had been a scam. She insisted that she was not fooled and wanted to speak to Mr. Ben Gazi himself.

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    1. Nancy--Almost Not Funny because it's got that Ring Of Truth! And hey...Ben Gazi...didn't he play a doctor on TV?

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  3. Thanks be I am a Canadian. Our incoming PM may be an airhead, but according to the world press, he's Hot. Words do not usually fail me, but in your case, all I can think to say is "Want to emigrate?"

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    1. Mary G--Justin T. is a pleasant-looking PM, and I'm not familiar enough with his intelligence yet to comment on his breezy brain, but I'll take your word for it and cold comfort in the fact that the entire world community may indeed be going crazy and electing sizzle and not steak.

      Emigrating looked like more of a possibility back when The Angel Of Death won his second term (Bush 43), but some lovely Canadians convinced me--rather passionately--to stay and fight for the sanity of my country. That made sense to me. Sort of along the lines of Not Letting The Terrorists Win, you know? Thankfully, the campaign season in American politics allows for this sort of Silly Season to start early and then, later, allow cooler heads to prevail. That's what I am hoping for.

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  4. It's very hard for me to imagine I'm a Republican in this day and age when it no longer means fiscally conservative but also means hating anyone who has an alternative lifestyle, hating people who are getting a free ride with Medicaid, hating anyone who isn't Christian (preferably Protestant), etc., etc. But if I MUST pretend to vote Republican the only choice I can see is John Kasich. He does have Congressional experience and was on the Armed Services Committee so one assumes he has a passing knowledge of foreign affairs. Of course there was that little thing about his golden parachute when Lehman Brothers went belly up...

    The whole thing has been great fodder for the comedians. I do love what Danny Zucker had to say about the good doctor; that perhaps we have been overestimating the intelligence of brain surgeons.

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    1. NCmountainwoman--As a native Ohioan, I can tell you that Kasich has plenty of warts and that his Compassionate Conservatism is largely new and somewhat artificial. He has a great deal of disdain for teachers, a proclivity for unregulated government agencies with no oversight, and gleefully cuts from social programs left and right, leaving tons of agencies who need help scrambling for funding to assist the very people he is claiming to Be There For.

      Still and all, he scores way lower on the Wacko Meter than these other Doodahs and yes, he does have valuable experience which he can bring to bear. He has learned several valuable lessons in Ohio. And trust me, after he tried to ram through SB 5, which would have banned all public employee (teacher esp) unions and eliminate collective bargaining and it was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls, he was damned lucky that Ohio does not allow recalls of the governor. He would have been gone early in his first term.

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  5. Re sanity finally prevailing, this Canadian hopes so. Your govt is probably more important to us than ours, given that we sleep next to the elephant. Time will tell what our new govt actually can pull off, but at least our system prevents the right wing folk from blocking at every turn the way Obama has been negated so often.
    Some of the Liberal platform is pretty spacey, alas. You might better confine yourself to the good wineries for visits until we see if they actually try to implement things such as changing the voting system.
    Me, I have my popcorn and a good seat in the bleachers for your elections.

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