Surrealpolitic for surreal times.: October 2007

10.07.2007

The Trouble with Righty.


After watching the Republican Party run in full force away from the current administration into three different directions it was easy to spot the fissures. And as I waited to see if they would decide upon their social conservative (Huckabee), their fiscal conservative (Romney) or their foreign policy conservative (McCain), I understood at last the real trouble with Righty.

Let’s start with the the social conservative, and frankly the most populist of the three. Huckabee believes that poverty is a sin, and there we’re in agreement. I loved the fact that this man wanted to treat the poor and uneducated; the root causes of many of society’s ills. I liked the fact that he struggled with his weight and changed himself, it spoke of personal responsibility – a characteristic lacking in many politicians these days. He also had a sense of humor which belied a humanity I appreciated. And then, suddenly, the gay/evolution issue cropped up and we were treated to the ugliness that still dwells in the heart of the Republican Party. The party that once spearheaded the end to the greatest human scourge on the American soul has now taken up the banner of fear, ignorance and hate. You may think that gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry, but one day they will, just as surely as the slaves were freed. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do. Because it’s what America was founded on: freedom to do what you want. As for evolution, if you still believe in a fairy tale over science, you should not be the commander of the world’s greatest nuclear arsenal. If you believe in fairy tales, run for president of Narnia. In America, we deal in facts and education.

The second problem with Righty lay in Romney’s drumbeat of fiscal responsibility. Oh, boy, when I hear anyone on the right scream about fiscal responsibility, I realy hear “fiscal responsibility for the middle class – the wealthy will still get subsidies.” We are currently facing a deficit in the trillions of dollars and Mr. Romney is talking about government cuts to its already paper thin social services. How is it that we don’t have enough money to repair bridges in Minnesota and the Republicans are still talking about cutting funding to our infrastructure? But not to worry, those tax cuts to the wealthy were going to stay in place under Romney, so while you’re drowning in the Mississippi under a thousand-ton steel truss, someone who is making a million dollars a year will be thinking of you.

Finally, we come to the winner of the primary and the REAL problem with Righty: John McCain. I won’t speak to his personal values because what happens between a man, his cancer-ridden wife, and his heiress-mistress should remain thus. I will speak to his choices as a politician.

The first is that he chose as his running mate a woman with no experience, no understanding of the world around her, and from what I’ve read from the transcripts of her interviews, no grasp of the English language. She is such a disaster that the press is forbidden to ask her questions. She is so miscast as a world-class politician that she received her first passport last year, and from what I understand she took a flight while in labor and then a 45-minute drive to deliver her baby when she could have done so with one twenty-minute drive to the nearest hospital. I believe one must question such judgement if one can not even care for the life inside their uterus.

Second, McCain’s history of voting with the current administration alone should disqualify him from ever again using the words “change”, “reform”, or “maverick”. He is a man so entrenched in the current mess that if he’s using these words cynically, it’s loathsome, if he’s not, he needs to get his head examined.

Finally, John McCain is simply too old to run for president. As those who screamed at Nader for running to feed his insatiable ego, one must also lay this accusation at McCain’s feet. He has no new ideas and has admitted that he doesn’t understand the economy. So why, in our current financial crisis, is this man putting himself forward? It is hubris on an unimaginable scale. It’s putting party over country. It’s saying, Republican: Right Or Wrong. The fact that McCain is the best the Republicans have to offer is a clear message that Republicans aren’t interested in the future of the country, just their future. And THAT is the trouble with Righty.