A Pox on Party Politics
It’s almost not sporting to rag on liberals up here, since what few voices there are to defend even the word liberal, are self-muted. I argued that being liberal wasn’t the worst thing in the world, especially when it came to ladling gravy at Thanksgiving. But no one was listening by the time I got to the punch line. Just say the word liberal, and they see "red". As in commie, enviro, whale-hugging, Jane Fonda.
The conservatives pride themselves on being so, but they outta be called preservatives for all of the thinking they give about new ideas. Someone opens their mouth, and their automatic response is "No." I don’t fault them from wanting to hunker down and weather the political storm of chaos, but it ain’t that kinda storm.
Liberal and conservative don’t work as labels any more than do Democrat and Republican. My goodness, people call Clinton a liberal. Where does that leave someone who opposes military spending and capital punishment? And there seems very little difference between what the Democrat in the White House is proposing and the legislation put forward by the Republican-controlled Congress.
The normally tightly-wrapped unity-driven Republicans are being torn asunder by what experts generously refer to as the right wing of the party. Bob Smith, the Senator from New Hampshire who carried around a plastic fetus in his pocket, has said the GOP ain’t so grand anymore. And the big hat, Pat Buchanan, also seems to be moving in that direction. Bye fellahs. Have a nice convention with the rest of the refugees from Diane Arbus’ photos.
That leaves mainstream Republicans, currently led — and I use the term loosely — by Trent "Empty" Lott and Denny Hastert. These people aren’t yet within sight of the vision thing. They had an extraordinary opportunity while Clinton was on the ropes to present a sensible agenda to meet the nation’s problems. Splat. Party politics dictated the decisions, and the Republicans shot themselves every time they pulled the trigger.
This is not to exonerate the Democrats, not by any means. Their shameless defense of Clinton was bad enough, but they, too, have put politics first and have failed to come up with a single practical solution to the same issues that have held our country back for the past thirty years.
I say a pox on both their houses. We need true leaders, people ready put nation before party, our children’s future before political self-aggrandizement. The country is ready for someone intelligent and caring to step forward. And despite what the so-called experts say, the right third-party candidate could win the 2000 election, in a walk.
And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.
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