Richard L Zorek
.........01.31.07........Senator Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Rep Dennis Kucinich, Tom Vilsack, Sen Joe Biden, Sen Barack Obama, Gov Bill Richardson, Sen Hillary Clinton, Wesley Clark, Al Gore, Al Sharpton, are among the official and unofficial Democratic candidates for the president in 2008. The election is still about one and three quarters of a year away. What happens now is that we have to hear all these candidates talk about how awful things are in this country and how they all want to "take it back" (to where????). And, though they have the right to speak, while they do so, they divert attention from the real issues that need to be faced. Go ahead and hate Bush's plans.........but do something contructive and suggest and alternative. Go ahead and hate the Iraq war plans..........but do something constructive and offer an alternative. Go ahead and hate all the Republican ideas.....but do something constructive and suggest an alternative.
It is not likely that will happpen. Instead....in order for the Democrats to get the White House, we will have to endure months of them selling the world (not just the US anymore) the idea that the US is in the worst possible condition it can be in and only they can make it better. And, they will be doing this while some incumbents will be missing time in their perpective elected office because they are to busy campaigning for another one. If I kept taking time off from my job to pursue another one, I dont think my employer would be too happy about that.
This has happened before though. Following the attacks on 9-11, Republicans and Democrats embraced in solidarity against the perpetrators of this tragedy. But, as election time came closer and candidates started declaring their intentions, they made efforts to draw lines. Suddenly, everything that was done was wrong and the Democracts declared that the USA was a mess again. Even though a lot of Democrats voted for the Iraq war initially, they suddenly decided that they did it because they were lied to by the opposing party. Not true, of course, but you would be surprised how many people actually believe that they were "lied" to because of the repeated "talking points" issued by the Democrats. Granted, there was a lot of bad information, but there was no orchestrated lie. The problem with this political warfare is that it is the citizens who are caught in the crossfire. While they try and politically out-manuever each other.......they often don't care what gets hurt in the scuffle.
The warfare from both parties that will go on between now and November 2008 has a price. Neither party is willing to pay it. That would require an interest in real issues, not just who is "more powerful" than the other.
No comments:
Post a Comment