When it was announced that McCain had picked Sarah Palin for his running mate....I was thunderstruck. I absolutely could not follow his reasoning, and when I did try to do that, it simply made no sense. As it turned out, of course, his sense of what Americans could stomach was indeed deeply flawed. A large number of people who might have otherwise voted Republican simply could not accept the reality that such a dim-witted, whack-job would be literally, "...a heart beat" from sitting in the Oval Office. And, so I suppose we should be thankful that McCain proved himself to be such a lousy judge of us.
But, when I read yesterday that the most recent poll of Republican potential candidates had Donald Trump tied for first place with Mike Huckabee.....I think I just about fried some transistors in my brain. Phrases like, "You have to be kidding....", "Naw, say it ain't so, "...none of them suffice to express my disbelief and especially my consternation. You see, somehow I have managed to cling to the notion that a person who sits in a position of such influence and power should also be a person of character, which is why I was so pleased that Barack Obama was apparently more than just another Harvard lawyer. It turns out, he's a Grand Compromiser who is in danger of selling the very people who were so overjoyed that he was elected....down the river. He may well become a one term president because the people who were his 'base' in '08 are now watching in disbelief as he repeatedly draws lines in the sand and backs-up as the Tea Baggers and the other minions of greed step over each line. Pretty soon he will be standing on the banks of the Potomac with nothing else to give away.
But, in the case of 'The Donald', we are confronted with a persona that has seemingly forever been synonymous with GREED, with vanity, arrogance, a truly ridiculous comb-over, and has acted like a petulant bad-boy with rotten manners. In short, if you look in the dictionary under 'bombastic', you find a picture of Trump. He is already showing how much of a whacko he is by insisting on fiddling the tune that all the 'birthers' want to dance to. So, Trump is stomping his foot, rasping out this scratchy tune and the idiots are all doing a crazy dance around the campfire. He has been taped saying, "When I am president nobody will laugh at the United States anymore"...or something very close to that. Exactly what he means by that is anybody's guess...but, I would suggest that he means that under his wise leadership we will re-assume our rightful role as the planet's ONLY SUPERPOWER. Really? Is this who we want to be going forward. Wouldn't it better if we were seen as a source of strength and kindness to the world community? And, by 'strength' I mean appropriate support not just purely military might. We have that in spades and I believe the rest of the world is becoming just a bit leery of it, and even resentful and afraid. So, yeah, Donald, let's make sure those other countries all know that we're the baddest mofo out here on planet earth.
Puhleeeze!!!!! We can deal with our foes as necessary. We don't need a bully with a bad comb-over in the White House shaking his fist and sneering. What we need to become, and could easily become is a beacon of compassion to our friends and allies, and a reluctant user of this Big Stick that we have already been using with some abandon in the last decade. For us to regain our self-image as 'the guys in the white hats', we need to remain calm, act with wise and restrained yet appropriate force, and identify ourselves as a member of a worldwide community of nations. This blue-green ball floating through space is now in fact a neighborhood of sorts....and there is no place for a bully. So, why would we elect one?
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