When I closed my eyes last night, I hoped as I do every night we might all agree to play nice(er) in the course of the campaign to be selected to be one of the two major parties' candidates to be elected the next President. To be honest, maybe like you, I looked at the job for myself, in terms of benefits and advancement potential (welcome to moot point, population: me) and concluded hearing 'Hail to the Chief' played every time I would show up someplace would get a little old (I'm more of a Louie, Louie guy myself).
Then there's the haberdashery and men's' furnishings situation. From what I've observed, the President of the US is propping up the suit manufacturers as I rarely see him, or anyone in national politics, have anything like a Casual Friday. Perhaps there's a rule that says you cannot create a cost-efficient and effective universal health care delivery system for 50 million uninsured citizens while wearing a rugby shirt (we sure don't have one yet and I'm hoping that's why we don't).
So, and do the math with me here: if the President declares, in a sweatsuit, that we're NOT in a recession, that the moon is not made of green cheese, that ISIL are junior varsity and/or Mexico is going to pay to build a wall separating our two countries, is any of that actually going to happen? Is the message what's inappropriate or would it be the packaging? This may become more than my problem as I look at who's left standing in the demolition derby we use to identify those MOST interested in becoming President (and it's only mid-March).
Eventually, this all plays out, right? I mean better a horrible ending than horrors without end unless....well let's not get personal in terms of invective and animus. That doesn't help at all. In theory, one of these folks still standing (or listing heavily to port) will be Lesser of Two Evils whom we elect in November (maybe they'll wear nametags identifying themselves as such).
Did our politics change since the Founding of the Republic or have we? Have we concluded the Lord gave us two hands to better help ourselves and two pockets to put it all in or are we just taking a break, ethically, spiritually, philosophically and soon we'll have our second wind? We were so relentless for the last decade and a half about regime changes across the globe. Are we going to have one here in November and what will we look like then, not just to the rest of the world but to ourselves (assuming we can look ourselves in the eye in the mirror; that has been a bit problematic lately hasn't it?).
We've become a pluralistic culture that's at least as bi-polar as it is bi-coastal and more and more of us look at one another and are concerned that even though we have shared words and grammar we don't seem to speak the same language. Stumbled across James McMurty the other day and suspect I'm about to wind up sharing an adjoining cell on an artificial Paradise clad in an orange jumpsuit when staring at the dilemma facing us in an America Gone Away as The Other One Went Awry.
-bill kenny
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