Politics

I'm not overtly political.  At times, I find some of the machinations fascinating, other times I find it compelling in the same way a train crash is compelling.  Most of the time, I'm disgusted by the whole industry -- and that's what it's become, an industry.

My loathing for the industry goes back to high school.  I injudiciously ran for vice president of the National Honor Society my junior year.  I spoke first to the group and told them some platitudinous stuff about not knowning what the position entailed, but whatever was involved I would strive to make the best of it and to represent my classmates to the best of my ability.  I was brief.  My opponent, who ended up with a full ride to Purdue University to study engineering and was either the valedictorian or the salutatorian, promised, if elected, to make sure that we would go to a Cubs' game.  The tally was resolved in his favor, with him winning by one vote.  It turned out that my friends in the senior class counted the votes and one of them commented that she was so sure I was going to win that she voted for my opponent so that it wasn't a shut out.  She was so upset that she told her friend that she'd change her vote in my favor.  Her friend, also a close friend of mine, correctly and thankfully told her I wouldn't want that.  With that election, my involvement in politics came to an end.

With that background I come to my adult life and politics.  As a general proposition, I'm an independent, belonging to neither established party.  I joke that I'm a Marxist, that I wouldn't join a club that would have me as a member, but Karen tells me that's lame to say.  My opinion of the two parties, painted with a very broad brush, is that the Republicans are arrogant and the Democrats are hypocritical.  Although I lean more conservative in some areas and liberal in others, I have a healthy distaste for the Democrats.

The Democrats and their liberal supporters drive me insane for this reason:  Their unexpressed motto is Do as we say, not as we do.  The recent debate on gun control is instructive.

When he was a candidate in 2008, Uncle Joe Biden said on the campaign trail that candidate Obama would have to pry his guns out of his hands.  Now, Uncle Joe is leading the charge on curtailing gunowners' rights. 

Liberals point out to the massacres that have occurred with semiautomatic weapons.  The deaths, to be sure, are horrifying.  But the statistics show that these deaths are relatively few when compared to deaths caused by knives, cars and even drugs.  Yet the outrage is focused solely on guns.

Hollywood types rail against semiautomatics.  They film commercials exercising their First Amendment rights.  Yet they ignore that they are speaking out to limit others' Second Amendment rights and conveniently ignore the movies in which they appear and for which they receive huge money wherein semiautomatics loom large.  The reason they can do that, obviously, is that when they make movies, they're excercising their First Amendment rights.  So when they're exercising their constitutional rights, it's all right, even if by doing so they unconsciouly plant the seeds in young people's minds that using these weapons illegally is all right, but heaven forbid another person exercises his Second Amendment rights lawfully.

And whatever you do, don't ask them about it.  Right, Quentin Tarantino?

Al Gore, the champion of the green movement, won an Oscar and a Nobel for his efforts.  Nevermind that the science behind his argument was later debunked.  And whatever you do, don't criticize him for selling his cable television station to Al Jazeera, an Arabic television station that served as Al Qaeda' media outlet and is funded by Qatar, a country that exists on oil -- the fossil fuel Gore allegedly demonized.  Whatever you do, don't question his need to fly his private jet instead of flying commercial like the rest of us heathens -- remember, he buys others' carbon credits.

I could go on for hours.  Sure, the Republicans aren't blameless.  I don't need their lectures and pats on the heads, either.  But there's a fundamental difference between the two:  With the Republicans, they're a fixed target.  With the Democrats, they're constantly moving, shifting their story to suit their latest needs.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles