Monday, November 19, 2007

Abandon all hope

What's next for Rudy, a log cabin penthouse? The pursuit of the "regular guy" image by showing up at NASCAR events by this city boy who probably doesn't drive a car is every bit as irregular as some of the shady characters he calls friends and appoints to important offices and it's as unsettling as the image of him wearing a dress and makeup.

Pandering has become the essence of campaigning and while we all see it as phony, we seem to fall for it. It's not just pandering though, it's pandering to what the candidates believe is the essential American; the kind of person they've spent their lives avoiding and condescending to. Whether it's John Kerry the Hunter or Mitt Romney the Hunter, it's not convincing to working class, duck hunting, bass fishing, stock car racing fans - yet they continue support with the same mindless consistency as our Cuba policy.

None the less, it works. It gave us George W. Bush, son of a wealthy New England clan of old money patricians whom America wanted to have a beer with. Candidates like Ron Paul or even Dennis Kucinich might make me want to have a conversation at length and that's why they're second or third tier candidates, unlike the ones putting on their first pair of brand new Oshkosh overalls over the Dolce & Gabbana underwear so they can step out of the limo and talk about the price of sow bellies.

Yet that's who we traditionally vote for and that's the line we regularly fall for and that's why at this point I'm not wondering about Democrats and Republicans but only if Mitt or Rudy will be the next president.

2 comments:

Intellectual Insurgent said...

Ron Paul raised $4M in 24 hours and he's still called second or third tier.

And tier of what?

Who decides there are tiers and who is assigned to which one?

It's as if our media have become Randy, Paula and Simon of American Idol, screening candidates for us so that the show doesn't have anyone the "experts" don't deem good enough.

Let's switch up the propaganda. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are first tier. Some cross-dressing, thug associated, thrice married fruit loop can never be first tier no matter how many times CNN and Fox say so.

Capt. Fogg said...

This is a society than knows more about Brittney and Paris than about Kip Thorne or Ed Witten or even their elected representatives.

We have lots of choices, but few people will ever make them.