As we are at 10 years since "9-11," I have new reason to discuss the real-world "no-win" scenario presented that day. Normally, the line of discussion goes something like this:
"Say you're on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center on 9-11... the planes have hit, the flames below you block the stairway, there is no elevator, and the flames are working their way up to your floor. You can even feel the increasing heat coming through your shoes. What do you do? Do you jump out the window to certain -- but quick -- death, or do you stay in the burning building and hope for a miricle that isn't coming anyway?"
We know now that there was no right or wrong answer. Whether you burned up, or were crushed when the tower collapsed, or jumped out the window, the end result was the same.
Which brings us to our national political situation. I've not written anything about the the actions of either the President Lawn Chair, or the Cadaverous Congress, or the subset of the GOP accurately described as the Tonto Party. And as if I'd spent the past 9 months eating nothing but cheese and white bread, and then suddenly switching to a diet of carrots, oat bran, and and Ex-Lax, I suddenly feel compelled to get this now painful, smelly load out of my system.
The sadest thing that President Obama has earned a reputation of folding like a lawn chair under opposing pressure "If you stand up to him, he WILL back down." I supported him actively in 2008, so I don't say any of this with glee. He was (still is?) intelligent, articulate, and wise. But since the 2010 election, even a few months before that, his expressed long-term vision and short-term goals, are simply not consistent with his actions and results.
Whether it's the environment, or energy policy, or the debt limit, or even when to address the nation about his #1 priority, jobs, it's been "Cave-ins, cave-ins, and more cave-ins. The 1st Black President (sorry Bill Clinton) has ironicly failed to make use of the ultimate Black Power, the power of the Presidency. He has allowed not only the minority party (the GOP) to run him around, but freshmen members of the House of Representatives, mostly Tonto Party members to dictate terms to the single most powerful man on the planet. The resulting pattern of stated position and retreat from said position, can only be described as weakness, impotence, a total lack of resolve. Caving-in is not the new compromise. The "Audacity of Hope" has become "the Audacity of Nope".... "Yes we can" has morphed into "I wish we could, but no we can't."
Not only has President Obama lost the faith of his Democratic base, he has lost the faith of middle America. A weak President is not a good leader, and even his stated direction can't be trusted. In contrast, Ronald Reagan (who Obama often refered to in his first presidential campaign) and who I have never liked as a President) at least was consistent between his words and his actions; so was Bill Clinton. So should we re-elect a demonstratively weak President? It's not such a simple choice. It's the 107th floor of the WTC all over again.
Not sure what to do in 2012... the Republicans seem to be in a race to see who is the most ignorant and stupid. I don't really want to spend the energy recounting all the crazy, insensitive, ignorant, "don't confuse me with the facts" set of candidates out there. And I say this in kindness. There is no other way to describe a group of candidates who don't believe in evolution, don't believe in global warming, are against raising the debt ceiling, are against the very wealthy paying taxes, against regulations in general, against human beings having affordable health care, and believe with all their heart that if Obama is not President, it will be "morning in America" again. They all seem to be out to corner the Tonto Party vote. This group is so mentally bankrupt, they give Obama a punchers chance of getting re-elected.
Could you imagine one of them as President? I can't. Do you really think any of them would do better? If anything, they are likely to accelerate the fall of this nation.
So there we are, in September, 2011. Our own 9-11 dilemma. Re-elect a weak ineffective President, or elect a Republican who would purposely steer the Titanic into an iceberg?
Here's a riddle Mr. President: what do baseball, tennis, golf, and national politics have in common? You got to have some balls to play... if you really want a place in history.
Do you really think that a, "win one for the Gipper" pep talk is going to influence Obama? His job was to distract and defuse the left in this country and he has performed that task admirably. Obama's, "failure" is not one of courage but of honesty. He already has a very secure place in history.
ReplyDeleteIf your purpose in writing was to convince potential voters of the futility of voting, you have performed that task admirably.
Martha Stewart, being a convicted felon, cannot cast a vote at all in 2012, but I don't think that she's too upset about that. She knows that voting is for peasants.