SAME OL’ SAME OL’

Here we are in July of a presidential campaign year, and, as usual, the mud is so thick you can’t see the issues.

McCain can’t afford to have people asking whether they want to face another four to eight years of Repulsican policies, so he chooses to undertake character assassination instead by comparing Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.

Obama has taken a higher road, but still doesn’t very directly speak to some of the issues I would like to see our nation address. Although his European and Middle-eastern tours have given him a great deal of popularity in those regions, he hardly ever points out the damage BushCo has done to America’s reputation abroad. Nor does he ever speak of how bitterly most of the world views our current warlike persona.

Neither candidate has voiced his position on trade policies, and total silence reigns on the subject of job exportation. What are they going to do to try and rebuild American eminence as a productive workplace? How do they plan to restore the value of the American dollar? What programs do they have in mind to try and combat the fact that China and India have more gifted students than we have students? How will they overcome the dumbing-down of Amerika? What can be done to reduce the world’s nuclear arms level? How can America lead the way in nuclear arms reduction? How can America divorce itself from Amerika – that nation approaching fascism and constantly threatening the rest of the world with its military power? How can the balance of powers – so dangerously o’ertipped by BushCo – be restored to the distribution written into the Constitution? What practical steps will either candidate take to ensure the universal availability of primary health care to American citizens; and at what cost to be covered from what sources? What does McCain plan to do to ensure that the Social Security program remains viable and valuable? (Obama has detailed his plan, and his thinking matches mine point for point, so I like it!!)

The one thing we know the answer to at this point is that the campaign will center on the kind of inanities that McCain has chosen to make the core of his advertising rather than spending much time on any of these questions. After all, that’s the Amerikan way. We just can’t be bothered to listen to – let alone read – lengthy explanations of political problems and their solutions.

Ultimately, instead of weighing the important issues and identifying the candidate whose approach most nearly matches our idea of correct thinking, we, like the good Amerikans we are, will try to decide which man we would rather have lunch with and then vote for him.

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR