Sunday, September 07, 2008

The One Where I Bang the Political Drum




It happens every election season. The vein above my right eye begins to pulse, my hands get sweaty, my brow furrows and I find myself counting to ten before speaking quite often. It's not the necessarily the candidates that do it to me, it's not even the media (although, I confess I have come close to denting the LCD).
It's the people.... the regular, ordinary people that bring on the stroke symptoms. All one of then has to do is open their mouth and I can feel my eye twitch and my ears begin to bleed.....

This election season is not different. Once again, I'm not on the "side of the angels" and Oprah has not endorsed my candidate. (seriously?!? Oprah!?!)

The common intellect of American society blows me away every time. So, I going to be my usual incorrect self and just lay it out there......

On the issues;
Iraq--- No one really wants to be in Iraq, but so many people refuse to educate themselves on the geo-political consequences of not being there. The Middle East is still (and probably always will be) the hot-spot of the world. Simply put, do we really want to leave it unattended? Just how much are we willing to pay for a gallon of gas?
Terrorism--- Let's face it, whether you agree or disagree with what Bush has done, the fact remains that there have been no more attacks on American soil. That being said, should there be another attack, do you really want someone who'll just negotiate? I don't.
Energy--- There is no question that we as a nation need alternative sources of energy. That being said, we must acknowledge that our energy needs and desires are a mult-level problem. No matter what form of energy we choose to use, we have to be willing to develop it, build it, and use it. That means uncomfortable people. We're going to have to give up the idea of "not in my backyard". We're going to have to accept that energy is going to cost us more before it costs us less. We're going to have to accept the fact that it's going to require some governmental interference to get it done. No matter what our choice, it's going to affect us in our own homes and in our everyday lives, we'd better be prepared for the cost to come.
Enviroment--- Once again, it costs to save the enviroment, and we have to be prepared to pay the price. That means everyone. Fining and taxing corporations raises some money, but ultimately, the end user must also pay the price. I think people are overlooking that in their zeal to condem the current policies. We must also be prepared to sacrifice convienience in our own homes. Anyone out there know what percentage of our everyday products impact the enviroment? We know it takes forever for a plastic water bottle to degrade, but do we really know how much of our enviroment is impacted to make that bottle? Or your shampoo bottle, or the bottle for your dish soap.....etc. etc. etc.....
Health Care--- Everyone's favorite whipping post. It would be wonderful to have health care for every American. It's not possible without moving towards or directly into socialized medicine. And again, someone has to pay for it. And again, that someone is the regular guy on the street. It flat out means more money out of everyone's pocket....
Housing--- The housing crisis is an individual-created crisis. That means that there is an entire section of this country who bought homes that they couldn't afford based on the idea that we are ENTITLED to own a home in this country. Predatory loans, are a product, and only exist because there's a moron out there that's willing to purchase it. Now, the government (who just bailed out Fannie and Freddie) will be asking you to pay for it, and me, and your kid, and my kid..... Seriously, how much are you willing to pay for your neighbors stupidity??

So here's where I am. I support the McCain/Palin ticket. And I don't agree with all of their positions. But, when I sort through the chaff, the grain works for me. I want a team with political experience. I want a team that has been dedicated to public service, not just politics. I want a team that's willing to cross the aisle to get things done, and I want a team that is unafraid to make the "unpopular" decision. Actually, I want a team that will MAKE a decision, not just talk about it.

Change is always uncomfortable folks...just how uncomfortable are you willing to be??

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4 comments:

ISO(In)sanity said...

I agree with you on the environment, and energy, and the housing. It's like all the documentaries they do showing people pissed off that they lost their jobs to China, but then they get mad that they have to drive ALL the way to the next town over, cause they love Walmart...it's the circle, baby...you can't feed the circle, if you don't like the circle. But we all do.

On the terrorism thing, we of course diverge. The simple fact is that if the people in the security lines had actually been doing their jobs, we wouldn't have had 9/11. Also, flight crews used to be taught to play along, because they used to be jacked to go somewhere to get the people "home." That'll never happen again! They blew their whole wad 7 years ago, we've done enough damage to them they can't do it again. The Japanese haven't struck since 1941...does that mean we still need to have military there too? And, really, 9/11 was pulled off with box cutters. Not some high tech thing. They could do it today, no problem, cause we still have slappy and dippy doo at 90% of the security lines. Nothing our gov't has done has changed this fact. It took them almost 10 years beteen the 2 attacks on the WTC even without our call to arms.

Yes, we should have been full throttle in Afghanistan. Iraq? That was a pissing match. And it detracted from Afghanistan.

ISO(In)sanity said...

Is your eye twitching yet? :)

Nyt said...

There goes that pesky vein again.... There is a total picture here, and it has less to do with Iraq or Afghanistan than it does with region as a whole.
Actually, I agree with you on one thing. We have the most pathetic airport security ever. But, stand in any line in any airport and you can hear the grumblings of large groups of folks who believe that their "rights" are being trampled on, or that they're entitled to fly anywhere they want with little or no inconvenience.... idiots!

ISO(In)sanity said...

See, I'd argue that we made Iraq a much more unstable, scary place when it comes to US interests...Hussein was no doubt a pesky, evil, horrible man. But if his people didn't like living under that threat that his rule brought, and weren't willing to change it, why should we have? oh that's right...shrub jr didn't say it was for their rights...he only said that after it all went down the crapper and it was proven that hussein had nothing to do with 9/11. But Hussein DID hold the whole bag of secterian crap together, his rule of the iron thumb didn't like other's mucking in his backyard. He kept out a lot of the crazies, cause he wanted to control the terror. Now, it's a free for all there.

Yeah, our airport security profiled us as terrorists because we have a Lithuanian last name with a "z" in it...you know us, do we look arab? They are all a lot of idiots.