This is the eighth presidential contest since I've been sentient enough to really understand them, and I have to say that it's official: devolution happens. What else can I call it when I find myself pining for a Dole or a Mondale? Not that I think either of them was such a fantastic candidate, mind you, but I look at the fields both parties are offering this time 'round and I've given up on wanting a statesman; now I'll happily settle for a responsible adult.
On the upside, it looks like Rudy the RINO has taken his ball and gone home. On the downside, the Manchurian Candidate is picking up quite a head of steam. Not only is he an authoritarian jackass with only a passing acquaintance with the Constitution, but he's almost guaranteed a stomping in any head-to-head debate with either of the Democrat front-runners, who'd leave him looking like a doddering, red-faced, frothing loon.
Not that it matters to me, of course, since the only GOP candidates I could have held my nose and pulled the lever for have either already dropped out or are trailing so far back that they can't even see the pack from where they're standing. So it looks like I'll either be going fishing on election day or making a protest vote of some sort.
And before you even think about puffing up and sputtering something about "Are you just going to give Hillary the White House?" just put a sock in it, because it wasn't me, brother. It was all you idiots who put candidates out there that got tied up in pointless jackassery like rearranging the 'gay marriage' and 'flag burning' and 'stem cell' deck chairs after the USS Conservative had already hit the iceberg. Your typical Republican these days is worried more about what's printed on the money than where it comes from or what it gets spent on.
That's it. I'm done. No more "change from within". A pox on you and your Grand Old Party. We've grown so far apart that I'd be as well off lecturing the Democrats on gun rights and laissez faire economics as I would be convincing the GOP to keep its hands to itself.
EDIT: Unc is only slightly less disillusioned than I am. So is J.P. Sartre.
EDIT II: Word of the Day: Electile Dysfunction.
Looks like we're ridin' in the same cattle-car, cousin. Makes me pretty sad for the GOP -- and even sadder for the country.
ReplyDeleteI left the "Parties" when I really understood that the Communists had a party, the NAZI's had a party and the Facists were a party, although all three of them were late comers compared to the American and British parties (Whigs & Tories). Just not a party person, although I just received my AMA card, it will fit beside my YMCA and NRA card, but no GOP card carrying...
ReplyDeleteThat about says it. Up until recently I had decided it was going to be a clothespin election: hold my nose and get it over with. Now I don't know if I could even do that.
ReplyDeleteBryanP
Indeed. Duncan Hunter? Gone. Tancredo? Gone. TEH FR3D? Gone.I can't vote for Huckleberry, Romney or McShamnesty.
ReplyDeleteI may sit out a Presidential election for the first time in my life.
Hell, there's a small part of me that wants to swan dive in to nihilism and chaos, and vote for Her Heinous, just to get it over with.
Hell, Tam, just vote for Thompson anyway. Or Paul. That's what I'll be doing.
ReplyDeleteSoooo.
ReplyDeleteNot gonna grace the GOP with your usual wheelbarrow-o-cash this time around?
Me neither.
Funny; as a life-long Democrat, I don't know who any of the folks are on my side, either.
ReplyDeleteThey are all pygmies trying to climb on the shoulders of the giants. I may end up voting for a Republican, which is down-right heresy for me.
BRB
I'm with the pistolero.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, form rally square on the pistolero! Colors to the front! Fix bayonets! ;-)
ELECTILE DYSFUNCTION: the inability to become aroused over ANY of the choices for president put forth by "either party" in the 2008 election year.
ReplyDeleteVoting for the Demlicans or Republicrats is like going home with two cross dressers and choosing one of the two. “Voting for the lesser evil” is what I hear…that’s fine if you like cross dressers. I ripped up my GOP card four years ago and haven’t looked back since. By name only am I voting Republican this year and that’s due to Ron Paul running. If he ran as the candidate of the Flower and Watermelon party I would vote for him under that party name. I didn’t leave the GOP, the GOP left me.
ReplyDeleteTam, I wrote damn near the same blog (albeit with more profanity) the day Thompson set sail.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP has deemed the gun vote a lock for so long, they don't care anymore. They figure, as long as their candidate is .00000000000001% better on guns than the Democrat, we'll vote GOP.
No more.
Don't stay home. That's the worst thing to do.
Protest vote. Vote third party.
I don't care which third party. Vote Paul, vote Libertarian, vote Reform, vote Green, vote Cylon, vote Scientologist.
If enough of the gun vote (and we have to let the GOP know about this) goes third party, then the GOP (and maybe the Dems) will see a sizable bloc up for grabs in 2010 or 2012 and listen next time.
Personally, I'm thinking Cylon. I'm not so big on the eradicate all humans plank, but the cloning smokin' hot blondes is a platform I can support.
Screw it. I'm doing a write-in for Fred.
ReplyDeleteExcellently said.
ReplyDeleteThe gun vote for the GOP is like the black vote for the democrats - if the party actually did something that worked to solve our issues, then we'd no longer have our primary issue to vote on. We'd vote based on other issues and then they might lose our vote.
The Primaries are the best time to lodge those protest votes!!
ReplyDeleteLast # for FL, I saw, Fred had over 22K in votes, that was 1% of the vote.
not hateful for a guy that is out of the race.
I'll still vote for Fred, in the primary
theduck,
ReplyDelete"The Primaries are the best time to lodge those protest votes!!"
You're completely missing the point.
I'm not going to do a "protest vote" in the primary and then meekly toe the general election line for whatever idiot the GOP throws up as their candidate.
I like McCain about as much as I like Hillary, okay? I am not voting for McCain, Romney, or Huckabee, no matter how much y'all whine and stomp your feet about Supreme Court nominations or the GWOT or whatever.
If the GOP wants my vote, they'd better find themselves a Republican candidate between now and November.
I share your sentiments (hard not to).
ReplyDeleteMy original intention had been to cast a third party vote, hoping to spur the GOP back to the right. That was, until a wise man pointed out that the next POTUS will likely appoint one (and possibly two or more) Supreme Court Justices. In the long run, these would have far more effect on us than who serves a term or two as POTUS.
As bad as even a disgusting RINO like McCain would be, his SCOTUS appointments would almost certainly be far better (due to party pressure if nothing else) than anyone nominated by Hillary or Obama.
Just a little food for thought…
Oops, I posted before I saw Tam's reply...
ReplyDeleteI don't think McCain's nominations for The Supremes (at least his first one) would differ from Hillary's at all. You know why? Because he'd let the Dems pick it in the name of "healing the political rift in our nation".
ReplyDeleteSeriously, look at his positions on, well, damn near everything. The only reason McCain hasn't changed parties is because of the number of Reflex Republicans in Arizona.
McCain will put Lindsey Graham on the Court, unless he makes him Attorney General instead.
ReplyDeleteI voted for Fred and mailed my ballot yesterday. I almost wrote in Fritz the Cat.
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to figure out what became of spines in the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of earlier and earlier announcements and primaries attrits out all the war chests well before the main battles. Everybody pissed down Fred's collar for 'getting in so late' when he, in fact, wasn't any later than Lurch Kerry's announcement date in the previous cycle. Getting the mechanism rolling a year ahead of everyone else is great if you have seemingly unlimited personal funds (Romney, and Bloomberg, goddess forbid) to throw into a campaign that takes 2 years. The Presidency is looking a lot like a Congressional run, where you start running for re-election the day after you are sworn in. Of course, the Clinton machine has been running for the last 8 years, and the Obama machine got fueled right after his speech at the last Dem convention, but who didn't see that coming?
I think Super-Mega Tuesday is going to prove out to be a Very Bad Thing in the analysis of history. I don't want some Gomer in the Rustbelt knocking my guy out because he got a poor showing in a state with 3 electoral votes.
I'd sooner vote for the cold, mouldering corpse of Reagan than anything I've got a choice of since Thompson and Hunter dropped.
Regards,
Rabbit.
The Washington State Voter's Pamphlet still shows Alan Keys in the race...
ReplyDeleteI think a Harvard-PhD African American would make a GREAT republican candidate, if only for the entertainment value of watching libtard heads explode trying to rationalize not voting for him without calling him an Uncle Tom...
I only vote on the local and state stuff and leave the federal crap blank. I fail to see how voting for any of the federal sacks of shit will do anyone any favors, as voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil.
ReplyDeleteWell hell, now I feel better! Being an old bastard, I think I will just vote for HillBilly and let the rest of you(poor working stiffs) pay for my ride! I want a 25% increase in my SS and I want totally free expert medical care. Everyone needs it but who the F*** is gonna pay for it? Ok, I'm gonna take my meds and have another glass of wine! A votre sante!
ReplyDeleteThis slide started about the time Dan Rather threw a hissy fit over a tennis match and stormed off the news set at CBS. When they didn't fire his ass it just proved that media personalities are bigger than the news. Therefore we have now arrived at the point where the media is making the candidates instead of the candidates making the news. There may be a person out there who has all the answers but we will never see him or her because they are not willing to put themselves or their families through the media circus required to become president. Anybodt ever see "Idiocracy"? we are well on our way there.
ReplyDeleteGOLDWATER 2008!
ReplyDeleteOh, I expect that when Super Tuesday rolls around and we go to the polls here in Missouri, I'll cast my vote for Mitt Romney...not because I'm a fan of Northeastern country-club liberalish Republicans, but simply because a vote for Romney at this point is a way to shaft McVain.
ReplyDeleteAnd if McVain is indeed the Republican nominee in November, versus Hillary Rodham Cankles, I damned well will stay home for the first election in my life. Because, given a choice between two mean-spirited big-government nanny statists who have spent the last eight years screwing over their President and his party over resentment at losing an election, well...
As the bumper sticker goes: "Cthulhu in '08: Why settle for the lesser evil?"
*Waves hello* Remember the Whig Party (or more importantly, how they commited suicide).
ReplyDeleteI'll probably toss a vote to Paul in the primary, but with the choices that will realistically be left by the time of the general election, I'll be sitting this one out, unless the Great State of Mississippah puts another moronic amendment issue on the ballot for me to vote against. Pissin' up a rope, it were, but I wanted my one more added to the count.
ReplyDeleteIf you care about the budget, which no one even seems to mention anymore, then try choosing between tax-and-spend Dems and spend-and-spend Republicans. Come on! If you never saw a tax cut you didn't like, then you can't complain about folks who never saw a spending bill they didn't like.
ReplyDeleteTax Rebate my butt. It is a gift, borrowed from our children.
Anyone?
Yeah, 'cause I never complain about the government's spending habits...
ReplyDelete(When someone says "pork", I subliminally interpret it as "every bit of the federal gov't that didn't exist before 1929.")
OK... Where and when do we all meet up for this fishing day in November?
ReplyDeleteI really like the Cthulhu bumper sticker idea. Where can I pick one up? Maybe I should add it to the one on the front bumper... "Run Hillary, Run!"
If you have a conservative candidate up for a Senate or House seat, at least go pull the lever for them.
ReplyDeleteIf not, I hope the fish are biting.