If you've been following me for any length of time, you know I have conservative leanings, especially when it comes to national defense issues. Call me crazy, but when somebody says they want to kill you, they might mean it.
Another thing is that I come from a family who owns a small business. Over the years, I've never been able to figure out why businesses are our country's tax collectors. That's pretty much the basis for my conservatism.
Well, that and a belief that whatever government touches gets screwed up. You name it, and the government has demonstrated absolute ineptness when it comes to spending money responsibly. There was nothing stranger than congress lecturing car companies on fiscal responsibility.
So I was doing some thinking. After the election, there was so much Obama worship going on that people seemed to have forgotten that government sucks. I had people I know express disgust that I didn't vote for Obama. To them I say that I gravitate toward conservative values and I ate a big shit sandwich this election. Can I not respect Obama but hate his politics? We have a two-party system and I had to make a choice. I wasn't going to not vote. I guess I have a 50/50 chance of being a dumbass, considering the political affiliation of who's judging.
Today, as I watched the inauguration ceremony, I had mixed feelings. I thought, cool, a black man is president. I always believed the right guy could pull it off. However, I also thought the PR campaign he successfully used to get elected had a huge bearing on how he was perceived today. Obama may be the 44th President, but he's still human and he will still play political games. So I came up with this reminder to everybody who thinks just because we have a new President things will be different this time (click the graphic for the full size).
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Wretched Human Mirror by Bloodbath
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Obama is not devoid of substance. He did align himself with great advisors and he certainly was in the right place at the right time. To me, both of those facts already portend a level of awareness and intelligence we haven't seen since Bill Clinton. And, since the slate is clean on Obama (so far), he might be a step ahead of Clinton already.
I liked McCain, too, but felt that his concession speech was the first where he was actually himself. If you were sick of the Obama worship, I was equally tired of the term "maverick". I mean, a Republican who thinks outside of the Republican party lines is typically called a Democrat, so they had to come up with something else, I guess.
So, Obama out-advisored McCain. Obama talked directly to the people like a peer (we have work to do, yes we can), not a father to a child (I will handle the money, keep you safe from harm). He seemed calm and collected, not frustrated or agitated.
No doubt, they played up the Hollywood stuff as much as possible. The phony White House office setting in the Obama infomercial bordered on egregious. But, bear in mind that his message has always been positive, it's positively inspired people (here and around the world), and there's still the possibility that he could deliver on his plans. In that case, he would be among the best presidents we've ever had. Nobody speculates on that – it's usually how bad things are, whose fault everything is, or how he's doing things wrong. I mean, there's some huge potential upside here, too.
Reality is that nobody proffers that much positivity without being shot dead eventually, and all politicians make mistakes.
Also, love the graphic.
Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I wasn't a McCain fan, hence the shit sandwich comment. But just the disconnect between reality and the PR in this campaign was disturbing. The further we move away from these guys being real, the more cynical I get.