The Charge Of The Lightweight Brigade

Earlier this week I had a slight nervous breakdown and posted this on Facebook:

““OK...R.E.M. disbands ten years too late and now the U.S. Government is threatened with shutdown again. REALLY? REALLY? Again? We seriously cannot do any better than this? This is leadership? From anywhere on either side of the aisle? People pay taxes to support this type of leadership? People die on the battle field to support your current way of governing our great country? Our economy is in decline, people are not working and you squabble like petulant children. Every member of congress, Senator or House Member should be hanging in their head in shame. Real shame.
"It's the end of the world as we know it..." R.E.M.””

Slightly over wrought? Way over wrought? Probably the latter but really guys, this is embarrassing. I had overblown expectations for our President to use his HUGE popular support to be transformative. It retrospect that was very childish but we had come from a Presidency that was so stage managed and tone deaf that I needed change and certainly John Mc Cain was not the change I needed. I can still shudder to think about how his Presidency would look and we would all be beating on an old man. At least with Barrack we are beating on a young man in the prime of his life. But even though he was dealt an unplayable hand, he has played through every attempt to unite our country under a banner of real, PROUD change. Congress failed him totally, first the Democratically run congress and then the democratic minority dealing with a Republican majority in the House of Representatives who was elected with a mandate from the people, God and the Constitution to thwart anything else he tried. But the original fault is with the Democratic congress originally which played the same liberal, entitlement program that has been pretty thoroughly debunked by our countries history. Nancy Pelosi sucked...and she looked really, really scary, especially when she was worked up. The President, upon getting to his office should have asked she and Reed to resign their leadership posts because it was not what this country needed. He didn’t. Now we are here.

My brother, whom I love, is a Tea Party Conservative. God Bless him and them and their cause because they have changed the argument. I don’t believe they have changed it for the better but they have changed it and that is indeed what makes our country the greatest country in the world...still...no matter what the nay sayer’s say. They have successfully thwarted anything being done by government. Seriously, anything. Now I don’t pretend to know what the proper role of government is but I will tell you that it has to have a role and it is our largest employer and that tearing it down quickly, threatening to shut it down every time there is a spending bill, is reckless and stupid. Obama will be a one term President unless they run a crazy man like Perry or a crazy woman like Bachman. You cannot say stupid things frequently in public, and then stand by them and double down. Both of these candidates confuse this for courage and fortitude. What worked on their small stage (and Texas no matter what they tell you is an intellectually small stage) will be a disaster on Broadway (likely because of the pointy headed New York Intellectual Elite). So that is going to take care of itself. Run whomever you want and they should win and they too will likely be a one term President because we are in a deep trough with no easy way out.
But back to my brother. In regard to politics we agree on nothing. Ever. This might almost be a point of pride for both of us. But we have found a common desire and we need another one term President. We need someone who is brave enough to say the following:
1. We are in a deep, bad economy.
2. Government cannot spend or save us out of it
3. The American People are going to have to get us out of it.
4. We are going to have less government services and our churches and not for profits have got to start really stepping up because there will be needs that the government simply cannot meet for the needy and for those without a voice. This is a tragedy but this is reality.
5. We are going to pay more in taxes.
6. Our standard of living as we knew it was the creation of a bubble and is not sustainable. We can argue about this but time and economics have proven it.
7. Our standard of living will still be the highest in the world and we can lead like America should lead, by example.
8. Social security retirement age needs to be rolled back.
9. Means testing for benefits needs to take place. (I don’t know if my brother would agree with that one but my point is that we should not pay out the “safety net” of social security to people like Warren Buffet, or maybe even to people like me who have managed to put some monies away for retirement.)
10. Having troop fight wars overseas (even with radio controlled airplanes) is expensive AND we are going to have to figure out how to employ and equip all these troops we are bringing home for civilian life and it will be VERY expensive for a while but we have to invest in our best.
11. Something has to be done about health care. Here my brother and I would totally disagree so I will stop but that is the third rail of debt. Social security, War and Health care. Something has to be done about health care. Stopping frivelous lawsuits, stopping waste will not even cover next years % growth of the costs. So...something has to be done about health care costs and we will leave it at that for now.

So we need another one term President after Obama or even better we need Obama to embrace for his last year and a half, the role of being a one term President. Lead us to what is next. Dignity. Real Christian values that question our materialistic and militaristic culture and speaking the truth with love, rather than speaking the truth, when convenient, for votes and campaign dollars. But if not Barrack, and not the next Republican President, than it has to be the next guy or we are in some deep shit and the country will be so angry that we will elect a madman. So watch, pray and expect more of these guys. Congress? We cant shoot them. So lets vote them out and see if we can get some people who put America before their party and who can think for themselves without an agenda of talking points to get people to clap and sing God Bless America. What we need as President and in Congress are real people. Smart people. Creative people who are willing to take risks to do what is right and what this country needs. It didn’t have to be this hard. God already has blessed America, and he still is.


*cue the large eagle flying down with American flag in it’s beak...cue the country song about God and Country...fade to black*

ELECTION 2012

Sooooo.... I have been gone but have not been missed. It is Saturday night. I am sober. I just cooked a pot roast. My wife is out of town. My kids have moved out. No one really gives a shit about me. I am sober. Thinking about drinking makes my body hurt. I have neglected to send bills out for my law practice for two months and when my wife does return...she will kill me. did I mention I am sober? One of my dogs got into the bacon grease jar under the sink and has been puking up bacon smelling dog food all evening which slightly (but not profoundly) diminished my enjoyment of the pot roast. I say the movie “Drive” tonight. Women love Ryan Gosling. I don’t know why but my talent at judging man flesh is...”limited”. Gosling had to say less than 100 words in the whole film. He did kill at least 4 people however. Silent, handsome...psychotic. What is not to love. The movie was well films but just too slow for an action film. I am still sober.

So it is politics today. We are well over a year from the election and I am exhausted. I do not understand anything. Why, oh why would the Republicans embrace Rick Perry? Why will the country elect another Texan? It is very early and we have no ideas about what skeletons he has but one has to believe if he is a graduate of Texas politics that they would have crucified him early and often. It is clear he is a classic pork barrel Republican who really knows how to help his friends who are now all OK because they are “job creators”. Which is another thing. How did everyone who makes over 200k a year become a “job creator”? Why do they believe that we are so stupid? Why do we keep proving them right. The idiot buzzwords of the season:

1. The “Elite”
2. The “top 1%”
3. Taxing the jets
4. Romneycare
5. Obamacare (recycling from 2010 election)
6. HPV vaccinations causing mental retardation, “Government Injections!”
7. Do nothing congress
8. Leading from behind
9. No tax pledge
10. Ponzi Scheme
11. Corporations are people...like soylent green....IT’S PEOPLE!!!!
12. PASS THIS JOBS BILL!

There are a hundred more. I mean, really...seriously... I am not going to make it this time. Last election I was excited about Obama. Now I want to be clear, I do not blame him AT ALL for the lack of recovery from the recession. I am not even going to blame him when it double dips and i will not even blame him if it turns into the next great depression. Who you have as President does matter but we are reaping the seeds that were sewn for the last 80 years. But seriously... he has shown himself to be a really typical left wing politician. So boy would I be ready to get rid of him, but for the fact that the Republican candidates are THE WORST.

The Tea Party has totally skewed the Republican party. Everything is an absolute, no compromise eternal truth. Do not concern yourself with facts. Do not concern yourself that there are people who disagree with you. NO NEW TAXES. CUT ALL SPENDING. MAKE GOVERNMENT SMALLER. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. ONE NATION UNDER GOD! The sad thing is that on one level or another I agree with all these platitudes. I just also see that government does have a purpose. The free market and capitalism do not naturally solve all the worlds problems and that there really are no simple answers to the problems our country faces. So I will not be able to vote for any of the Republicans I have seen so far. I also have to admit, I really would have a hard time voting for a Mormon. I really feel bad about that but I really don’t think I can. And I like John Huntsman. He sounds like a totally reasonable guy to me. But he is a Mormon.

So here is what I want and what the country deserves. We deserve a candidate who is going to say the following:
“This is how it is, our country is in deep financial trouble. The world “including China” is in deep financial trouble as well. We don’t make a lot of things here anymore and the things we do make are military stuff (which makes a lot of jobs) and hi tech stuff and software (which does not). But it will take some time to figure this out but it is unlikely that we are going to bring a lot of high paying manufacturing jobs back here to restore the middle class. If someone tells you we are, they are lying and telling you they think you are stupid. Along those same lines, the housing industry, ain’t coming back. That was a bubble. Houses will need to be built, as population expands. Also, while we should not embrace illegal immigration we need to keep in mind that there are roughly ten million illegal immigrants here, we cannot to find them and send them back and... by the way by 2050, with or without illegal immigrants, we are likely to be a Hispanic nation. Embrace it! Change is good. Don’t be afraid. We are the greatest country in the world. The new economy might not be the consumption economy of the past. We might have a lower standard of living. We might have to live inter-generationally. We need to redefine what it means to be a GREAT country. People are going to have less government services. people are going to pay more taxes. Don’t let simpletons on the right tell you that it can all be done by cutting services and don’t let the Democrats tell you that we can make it up by “taxing the rich”. We need to demand that they treat us as adults, but in order to do that we have to hold them to a higher stadard and demand candor, even if it alienates the base.