If Shithead Hall of Fame Inductee™ Kathleen Parker is to be believed, Americans “don’t really want an egghead elite”, well, tell that to the 202 lawyers in congress. For some odd reason, we fail to vote in plumbers, janitors, and that guy that sleeps on your couch to higher political office (However 28 Congresspeople do not have a college degree, so there's hope yet!). Ms. Parker, the elegant headmistress of flip flopping finishing school says we’d rather prefer a state educated corporate money fueled cad over an Ivy league educated corporate money fueled cad.
For some reason, and of all people it seems, “independents” are a very forgetful bunch. If, as Ms. Parker suggests, this is a brain vs. gut situation, did we not have that “gut” mindset during the W. years? Also, claiming that some of the GOP dumb themselves down should more appropriately be called pandering. As this is to Ms. Parker's bread and butter to her readers.
More to the point, and I think it will become more clear in the coming election year, is that there’s really no discernible difference between anyone who represents the two major political parties anymore. If Mitt Romney wins the Republican Clown Car Rally, my case will be made in it’s entirety. The wrench in the works is this goddamned American love affair with the “cowboy” mythology that will continue to bite this country in the ass and give us the go ahead push over the waterfall. Rodeo Rick Perry is yet another character yee-hawing his way on stage for the bottom feeding know nothing voters to latch on to. If there is some truth to the idea that most voters spend about 15 minutes researching a candidate or issue to vote on, then yea, we have a lot to be worried for.
But that’s par for the course when it comes to the voting public, it’s a sad fact, but it’s preferred to the know-nothing political operative who would be given the power to shape society itself via political office. It’s one thing for your right leaning aunt to hear “something” from “someone”, it’s quite another Michelle Bachmann was told by “someone” in a crowd about adverse side affects to a vaccine. Really Michelle, you couldn’t be bothered to grab (or make up) a name for that?
I’m talking about the idiocy that most of these current crop of GOP possess, not word gaffes, which seems to be the only rebuttal the right wing has to this argument. Obama claiming that there are 53 states is no where near comparable to Palin not knowing what newspapers she reads, to quote a classic example. If Obama had one-millionth of the word buffet power that Palin had, he wouldn’t have even been able to sniff the front lawn of the White House.
Happily, there are websites such as Politifact.com, that do cover a lot of this nonsense from all sides of the government. Sadly, these sites never make it to the unwashed masses, which is where it is most problematic.
In addition to that, the fact that corporations now have the infinite ability to contribute to campaigns and super PAC’s means that the inundation of misinformation from television and radio ads during the next election year will be at a fever pitch. Recall the pain train from 2010? Yeah, that was nothing.
Now, before you try to pull off my tin foil hat, there has to be some acknowledgement that having an even keeled, pragmatic person run a branch of government is something we should strive for. Our ability to have a beer with him is not. There’s lots of talk lately of class warfare, of which there is no doubt to it’s existence. But before that began there’s been a constant battle over intellectualism versus I-know-what-I-know aka ignorance.
If there’s one thing you could boil the TEA party down to is a strong desire to not be told what to do. Sure, that’s inherent in most people, but as a movement the TEA party embodies this revulsion to authority with gusto.
And make no mistake, I’m not saying common sense and ignorance are one in the same. Ignorance can be fixed with knowledge, stupidity cannot. Stupid can be confused for ignorance, and hence we have all these non-players actually having a shot in the GOP Clown Car Rally to the White House. Sure, some can run a business, be a governor, but we all know a lot of dumbasses in our very lives that run things they probably shouldn’t be to varying degrees of success. What these people excel at is patronizing and pandering to lower common denominators. The eerie simplicity of “this bill is 100 pages, I would cut it like 5 paragraphs” ideal and the fact that the presenter wouldn’t be laughed off the planet should make people reconsider.
Further, these people are vying to be the face of our nation, sure we can’t hide all our soft headed population under the floorboards forever, but we do need to have some sort of global respect. Walking around with your chest puffed out and trying to strike fear in anyone is not great foreign policy.
To sound far more elitist than I should be allowed, haven’t we done enough for our knuckle dragging brethren in society? We have warnings on plastic bags to not put them over your head, secure lids on hot beverages that explain that said beverage is very hot, on and on. We now have to entertain their notions of higher political office out of what, fairness to all? Would you get into someone’s car if it looked like it had had it’s fair share of scrapes and dings? Go hunting with someone who shot off their own foot? Seriously though, it’s only an entire nation right? What could possibly go wrong letting the short bus rider’s think they’re people?
Sure, lets let them entertain themselves by playing in the shallow end of the political pool. Let them be comptrollers and mayors of 234 person towns. But handing them the keys to the world? No fucking way!
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