As I watch speeches by Romney, Santorum, and the hilariously bitter Newt Gingrich, I can’t help but fail to understand why more people don’t call out this kind of bullshit.
“I think the central issue during this election is freedom.” - Santorum
“[Insert endless tirade of references to blue collar America all whilst vaguely outlining almost no political idealogoies whatsoever beyond essentially beating his chest and shouting “America!”]” - Romney
The mere fact that the suggestion that a vote for these people is a vote for America, a vote for freedom and a vote for our Founding Fathers makes me sick. There’s no mysterious spirit of America that we’ve been missing like some warped Pandora’s box that will magically solve all of our problems. Yet, as these men cite their love of freedom and American values as their platform, they are met with cheers. Cheers that essentially say Obama, Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, Moderates, and basically anyone who isn’t a Modcon, Conservative or Neocon is against freedom and what should be America’s values.
America’s number one value, the one that you gloss over, the one that created this nation and is tragically lost amid the political bullshit is the idea that this is our nation. No one is right, but collectively, this is our nation to build and live within. I’m a progressive, but not in the sense that I think either of these parties have the answer. The only reason I tend to vote democratic (my fiscal beliefs lean conservative, my foreign policy and ethics lean liberal) is because to me, there is a fundamentally disturbing aspect to the conservative, GOP movement. This idea that we are headed in the wrong direction unless they are in charge. It’s a bitter, angry, vindictive stance that causes stalemates politically and vicious rhetoric that poisons this country. The democrats stand idly by, trying to win elections by being less extreme politically, but offering nothing better in return.
This is why I wanted Ron Paul as the candidate. I don’t support him in any way as someone that I want to be president, I want Obama re-elected in 2012, but what I want before that happens is an election that forces him to acknowledge his shortcomings in changing the political system in this country, a promise he made to me, a first time voter, almost four years ago. Four years ago when I campaigned throughout Philadelphia for him, inspired by a breath of fresh air after years of lies and the kind of bullshit that has since dominated this nation’s political discourse.
Then he got elected, fell right into the comfort of the system, the special interest groups, the bickering and the stalemates. Ron Paul is frank, honest and ballsy. He would play devil’s advocate and he wouldn’t allow Obama’s bullshit during a debate or through speeches. He would represent a far right end of the spectrum and point out specifically the areas in which Obama has failed on a fundamental, government basis because that is Paul’s area of concern. His very presence as the antithesis to Obama and what he has become would pull him back out of the muck; the circus of the two party system, and bring him back to not just talking about change to get re-elected, but having to promise to do it to win back voters. The democrats would never let him promise fundamental government change without doing anything about it (he would nail their coffin shut for 4,8, maybe even 12 years).
I guess what I’m saying is that I just want to see a good fight, but Romney is the same cookie cutter GOP shit spewing puppet just trying to win votes that we have seen so many times before. These elections bring out the worst in our politicians, and I might as well accept that we’re in for four more years of pandering.
