It’s election time. Three hundred million people in this country, and the best we can do for presidential possibilities is these three candidates: A woman that couldn’t control or satisfy her husband, a guy who hasn’t removed the training wheels from his political bicycle, and a dried-up has-been.
Obama is supposed to be the New Hope. His supporters rave about his charisma, but not much else. Oh, right, he didn’t vote for the war, but if elected he will inherit it. Does he think we are so naive we believe his statements that he will get us out in a year? Buy that, and I have some waterfront property for sale in the Gobi Desert.
If we are decent human beings we owe the Iraqi middle class a large debt and that isn’t going to be paid off in a year.
The Republicans are now backpedaling and atoning for the lies they told against John McCain, the so-called war hero, when they spread tales about his supposed affair that resulted in a black child. Now they say it was a child adopted from India. McCain was the devil himself when he was running against Bush in the primaries. Now he can do no wrong.
But I can’t fault McCain for his statement that we will be in Iraq for the next 100 years. Hell, we have been in the Middle East from the first — boy, was that successful. But in politics you shouldn’t tell the truth, only what the people want to hear.
Five hundred million spent by the two Democratic candidates, and who profited? The giant corporate news media that maniipulated us into accepting these losers while they laughed all the way to the bank. All of a sudden these media have awakened us to the reality that we have an economic crisis. Wonder of wonders, what did we think would happen after spending our surplus and going $9 trillion into debt? Oh, well, as Cheney said about our casualties — it’s only collateral damage.
Our economy is built on speculation, or in layman’s terms, gambling. Not the casinos, the stock market, which like a poker game contributes nothing of substance. Everyone complains about $4- (soon to be $5-) a-gallon gas. They don’t realize some of the blame lies not with the petroleum companies but with broker and investor speculation. We the people have the power to set the course —just quit buying for a week. Stay home, don’t go to work, and certainly don’t take frivolous trips. Or walk! — there’s an idea.
If we don’t get control of the economy, we’ll face a situation similar to that in the 1920s and ’30s. I believe it was called the Great Depression. That wasn’t the fault of the working people, it was because of the greed of corporations and banks. Much like what is happening now.
We overcame that when the government stepped in and put people back to work. I hear no such proposals from our candidates. All three voted for the stimulus package. Stimulus — “something that arouses or incites to activity.” Don’t they use a stimulus to incite cattle to breed? This seems to put me in the same position as the cow. I’m getting screwed whether I want to or not.
The government should have borrowed enough from China to put our people back to work fixing our infrastructure. Now if the rollover Democratic Congress would show some guts and fund only the troops and cut off Halliburton, Blackwater, Kellogg Brown and Root and the like and let the Iraqis pay them. Use the savings to hire contractors that didn’t get the nobid contracts and to pay Devin Back wages to fix our infrastructure and damage from Katrina. Then we might be on the way to economic recovery.
But I hear nothing like that from the Democratic candidates or Congress. McCain, on the other hand, wants to cut out all earmarks. The question is, does he favor privatizing any or everything that benefits the constituents? We know for a fact that private industry no longer delivers a sound product for the money. There was a time in this nation when it did, but with the demise of fair competition and decent wages, our suppliers have deteriorated to producing substandard products, whether medicine or machinery, war materials or clothing.
Whose fault is this? Ours. We were so engrossed with me that they now control us. How subservient we have become — the embodiment of the three monkeys, only now it is: Know nothing, read nothing, care about nothing except me.
We need to become involved and informed. Speak up to our elected employees. Ask more whys. It really upsets me when people throw around the idea of “big government” as a scare tactic. We are the government. It is the people we elect that scare me.
What kind of a nation are we that we cannot care for our young, elderly, and sick? How can one believe in Christ and not try to help his fellow humans in need? If money and power are to be our gods, we have reverted to the golden idol.
Am I happy with our present national candidates? Hello, no. The only way to rebuild this nation is to start at the bottom, and we will soon be there with the candidates we have. I’ve been voting for 59 years and haven’t missed a vote, not even when I was in Korea. I’m going to vote this time too — but for “none of the above.”
Galen Larson writes from rural Montezuma County, Colo.
