Conservatives who still haven't removed the clothespins from their noses after being forced to vote for John McCain are now falling into states of catatonic depression over the prospect of Donald Trump running for the Republican presidential nomination.
Trump, an occasional billionaire and fulltime reality TV star, believes himself to be qualified for the job of president owing to the fact that he has an actual birth certificate and a distinctive hairstyle which, while looking absolutely ridiculous, is at least more convincing than Barack Obama's alleged christianity.
All of which makes Hope n' Change feel nostalgic for the old days in which candidates had things like political experience, knowledge, integrity, a history of public service, and the seriousness of purpose to realize that becoming President of the United States carries much more responsibility than winning "American Idol."
The Presidency must be more than a popularity contest, and must be somehow separated from America's increasingly sophomoric obsession with celebrity (not to mention the public's inability to differentiate between celebrity, infamy, and notoriety - Charlie Sheen for VP, anyone?).
The mere possibility of another presidential election with no worthy contender on either side is enough to make our hair stand on end.
And no comb-over can hide it.
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Hair-raising, yes. "Raising the bar," no.
If nothing else, The Donald is perhaps doing us all a favor by planting questions of PresiDEBT Zero's bonafides in the collective unconscious...
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side, he's an expert at bankruptcy. Which might be where we're all headed.
ReplyDeleteBut you know what amazes me, Stilt? And some of you are not going to like this. Why on earth is Trump, and Newt, and Pawlenty and others all meeting with Bryan Fischer of the AFV, and Tony Perkins and Peter Sprigg, and Maggie Gallagher? These are all people who make a living doing nothing more productive than sissy stomping. The Family Research Council a failure since 1983. They haven't saved a family yet. And what do we have to do with any of it? And they are all on record saying horrific and lying things about a measly maybe 5% of the population; and the absolutely most powerless among you all. And at these confabs it is well agreed that apparently the lynch pin of it all is never saying anything nice about gay folks, and to say more negative stuff. And they're on record for calling for essentially our elimination by any means, "pray the gay away" as they say. It's nuts. And presidential contenders meet with people whom want me gone. It's beyond "celebrity" -- into delusion.
And I'm supposed to vote for Republicans for fiscal sanity, while agreeing to my public condemnation, as I watch the country crumple under big government. And you all think you're in a pickle?
Agreed, Jim, it's gotta suck to be a conservative homosexual, given all the gay-bashing pandering many of the candidates engage in. That, and the rabid 'ban abortion' attitude of the 'pro lifers' - when, WHEN will they realize that making them illegal will NOT make them go away, making them unnecessary will...
ReplyDeleteSadly, as I’ve commented in the past, presidential elections ARE nothing more than popularity contests. “He’s clean and articulate …”. Young. Black. Speaks/reads well (although that is fading). None of these have any bearing on ability to lead, and as we have seen, Obama is not a leader … he’s a community organizer (rabble-roused) but now on a national level with the title and power of the office of the President to abuse.
ReplyDeleteAnd if the right set of circumstances exist in November 2012, and the media continue to carry his water, he WILL be re-elected … especially if Trump is the best we can muster for the GOP.
Obama is no the problem. Trump is not the problem. The majority of American voters who are more concerned with the doings of Charlie Sheen than the looming disaster of the National Debt; that’s the problem!
Personally, I've been wondering for years, what happened to "Statesmen". (OK, or women). You know what I mean. Why can't someone actually REPRESENT the people that elected them? Of course, the obvious answer would be that they are worried about getting re-elected. When will someone come along that is more concerned about this country than their own bank account?
ReplyDeleteAs far as Trump is concerned, well, damn near anybody would be better than king hussein. Another four years of him will see the complete downfall of this country. No doubt in my mind.
@Pete(Detroit) – make abortion unnecessary? When it comes to 93% of the abortions in this country (elective abortions), they are already unnecessary. Sorry, but I would prefer at this particular juncture to make abortion illegal rather than maintain the status quo of having the murder of the unborn being legal!
ReplyDeleteI'm going back to bed. This is all too depressing.
ReplyDeleteI highly doubt that Trump will end up being the candidate. (I'm sure the GOP can find someone much worse!)
ReplyDeleteI think he's an self-promoting idiot blowhard who's only real business success has been promoting his empty brand at the expense of other people's money. But he is useful in that millions of otherwise clueless people believe him, and unlike many of the GOP frontrunners he has absolutely no problem pointing fingers and amplifying the economic disaster that the current Democratic regime has been for America.
So I say let him run wild until some serious candidates come forwards.
Chuck, respectfully, what will that accomplish. Other than giving a warm fuzzy that 'something' was done? I guess perhaps I was unclear - if those 93% of women had not gotten pregnant in the first place, then the abortion would be 'unnecessary'... We need to do a better job of teaching birth control, especially the ONLY 100% sure method. (Abstinence - works EVERY time) and prosecuting the 20 yr olds who have sex w/ 14 year olds, etc, etc...
ReplyDeleteBut no, rather than engage in 'social engineering' or demonizing cultural mores / norms, we continue to slaughter the innocent (if you look at it that way - I realize that many do not)
And yes, I use 'slaughter' as opposed to 'murder' for a reason - for it to be 'murder' they need to be 'persons' - and at moment, legally, they are not.
Funny thing - it seems that there is a high degree of overlap between the rabid anti-abortion types, and the anti-gay types. You might think they'd realize that gay people don't get abortions...
ReplyDeleteBut that's WAYYYYY off the topic of The Donald as Candidate...
Yeah Trump is actually a fairly popular contender for some reason, which is strange because you'd think people would hate rich people. Eh. Not that Obama's not rich but whatever....
ReplyDeleteAnyway yes I'm already having a bad attitude about being a PA voter so I won't even be voting in the primaries anyway unless somehow there is a close running between two candidates and its yet to be decided. Usually the other states get to decide our candidate before we have our day at the polls. GRRR.
I've also been complaining a lot lately about this "election strategy" and "money" talk. Strategy?! How about the "strategy" of just loving America and being an experienced and professional LEADER!!!! I'm sick that it has to be who can raise the most money, who can get the most ads out into the projects, who can tell enough lies to convince people they'll get rich under the new guy, and who can offer enough bribes in high places. ARGH! Oh for a George Washington again, who just sort of "fell" into place because he was just plain the right man for the job!!!!!
Susy, Robert, YES - calling all statesmen!
ReplyDeleteWould LOVE to hear from someone who says "it's YOUR job to get out there and get your own fortune, it's OUR job to keep gov't out of the way as much as possible." W/O getting all bogged down in AGW, abortion, gay rights, their preferred flavor of religion, etc, etc. Nice to have someone w/ the stones to rename the 'war on terror' and call it what it is - Islamist war on Civilization - has been going on for 1400 years, getting thrown out of Spain in 1492 was just a "setback"...
@Chuck- We're on the same page. The REAL problem is the American Voter. They've been carefully groomed by the educational system and the mainstream media to become ill-informed know-nothings with the attention spans of gnats. Which is how we've reached the point that our country no longer looks for a leader: it looks for a gameshow host.
ReplyDelete@Stilton - yep, we're screwed. Because of that gnat-like attention span, any effort to fix the problems are doomed to fail, because it will not happen quickly enough. Add in the "pain" that will be involved in weening the masses off all the taxpayer-funded charities, and meaningful reforms don't even have a chance getting started!
ReplyDelete@Chuck- I agree with everything you say, but don't want to concede the "we're screwed" part just yet.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how we can eventually pull victory out of this mess...I just know that IF it happens, it will only be because as many of us as possible kept fighting and kept the issues alive until some solution, currently unforeseen, could be found.
That's why I'm here everyday: not because I have the solutions, but because I'm damn well not going to let the battles be lost without a fight on my watch.
Amen.
ReplyDelete... and thanks for being here!
1) reduce, drastically, the number of employees - people will be too busy doing what they should be doing to worry about thinking up new stuff to 'look busy'
ReplyDelete2) announce the end of social security. "you are now all encouraged to fund your own retirement" - keep the 'employer contributions' coming to pay off the current recipients. Raise the electability 6 mo / year as high as necessary. Institute means testing. (I mean really, why does Bill Gates get to collect?)
3) Medicare / caid - set up 'free' clinics for routine care. Don't like it? get something else...
It CAN be done...it WILL be done - or WE'LL be done..
Pete(Detroit) said...
ReplyDelete"That, and the rabid 'ban abortion' attitude of the 'pro lifers' - when, WHEN will they realize that making them illegal will NOT make them go away, making them unnecessary will..."
That argument doesn't hold water. Making murder illegal doesn't stop murder either. But most people wouldn't say we should allow the unjustified killing of innocent human beings since we can't stop it anyways.
It's always interesting to see, linked together by the "culture warriors," the "abortion and homosexuals" um, dilemmas. One is a dilemma, killing; the other is merely "icky" (us.) We don't do abortion. We don't do anything that leads to abortion. That's the chief complaint about us. Murdering babies is not a gay thing to do. The Liberal nation is murdering gay folks before birth. And we're not happy about it, and it's discussed in forums you don't know about. And few gay men I know ever comment on abortion except "thank God we don't have to deal with the issue."
ReplyDeleteYou know, at NSFhetero websites there's a whole other debate going on -- and you'll be glad to know the TEA Party is winning. Slowly. Republican RINOS are trying to stop it, though not quite directly. It's a weird position to be in.