Thursday, May 17, 2007

I like Mike

I guess Gravel doesn't think he has a chance either. That's what allows him to be honest about his views. That's what makes him such an appealing candidate. Bush should go to jail, the Government should stop criminalizing drug use, Citizens should be allowed more direct control over many government decisions, Savings should be encouraged over unrestrained consumption - what could he be thinking when he talks like that? The sleaze machine will bury him; turn everything he says into a parody of what he means.

Mike Gravel sounds too much like the right thing to do and too little like the hollow, sloganeering ideologues we habitually vote for and we probably all know it. We never, of course, do the right thing; not when flags are waving, enemies are all around us and drums are banging. We want the comfort of being pandered to with the same old familiar slogans. He doesn't have a chance against someone charismatic, presidential, well groomed, folksy, thoroughly incompetent and probably dangerous.

Too bad.

4 comments:

Intellectual Insurgent said...

Our media choose the contestants for the Presidential Idol contest. The media tell the people who the "viable" candidates are, report how much money they've raised and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. As a result, the mere suggestion that you'll vote for a non-media approved candidate will get you a scolding from the sheeple that you are "wasting your vote".

As if their vote for whoever CNN endorses isn't a waste. And the sheeple continue being led to the slaughter. In fact, they try to outrun each other to see who can get there first.

Capt. Fogg said...

Yes, I sometimes wonder about Darwin - maybe we descend from something woolier than he thought.

d.K. said...

Well, Gravel says we were once fish coming out of the slime - that's probably closer, no?

I had never heard of the guy - I need to learn more. What I have heard sounds amazingly truthful. What a concept.

Libby Spencer said...

I like the guy myself but I wish he wasn't quite so old. He'd be almost 80 going into office.

It's a tough job that's going to be really tough this next time in terms of trying to repair the damage Bush has caused. I have to wonder if he would survive it. Even young men come out of the job looking really old.