Topic: Election 2008
Too Old and Brain-dead This is the right election year to reject both Democratic and Republican candidates.by Joel S. Hirschhorn
(Centrist Liberal Libertarian)
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
In the over half a century that I have been politically engaged I have never seen such an unqualified presidential candidate as John McCain. There are tens of millions of Americans in their seventies and beyond that have been smart enough to become technology literate, but not McCain, who is unable to even use the Internet. The man has a medical history that makes Dick Cheney look like the picture of great health.
How anyone can still see McCain as a legitimate maverick is insane. The man has switched positions on so many key issues as to make him unbelievable on anything. He routinely says things in public that are totally false. McCain has sold his soul to get the Republican nomination and while Republicans deserve no better, Americans would be beyond stupid to vote for McCain. Yet if polls are to be believed history could repeat itself and nearly half of voters could vote for him. For me this is entirely understandable, because I find Barack Obama a clever charlatan and nothing more than another conventional, dishonest politician with exceptional eloquence and a winning smile. Is he the lesser evil compared to McCain? Sure. But that just depresses me, not motivate me to vote for him.
The contrast between the youthful Obama and the elderly McCain simply on the basis of visible physical and mental sharpness and vigor is remarkable.
Every time I see McCain he looks and sounds pathetic. Anyone who keeps repeating an insipid phrase demonstrates a complete lack of mental competence. With McCain it is constant reference to "my friends" along with his cartoon grin.
It is time to stop thanking McCain for his military service and honoring his stint as a war prisoner by giving him credit for being qualified physically and mentally to be president. We have all seen how being president ages all the men in that office. The before and after photographs of presidents convince you that the office inflicts incredible stress, even on someone as brain-dead as George W. Bush. But Bush was a relatively young man in good health. He may have escaped the price of impeachment that he richly deserves, but he has not escaped the physical deterioration produced by the presidency.
Now imagine McCain aging as all other presidents have in office. It is a frightening prospect. Something akin to some horror movie that shows a transformation from a normal human being to some frightening alien life form.
There must be some way out of this.
There is.
It is time for more Americans to face the truth about the two-party plutocracy that has robbed our political system and weakened our democracy. The one important thing that McCain and Obama have in common is that they are both products of and servants to the corrupt, dysfunctional two-party system.
Clearly, the corrupt political system has accommodated itself to only about half of eligible voters actually voting, a disgrace that hardly anyone even bothers to talk about anymore, as if a first class democracy has such a disgusted population. But this is consistent with the fact that some 84 percent of Americans see the country on the wrong track.
Obama is no political messiah. And to simplistically see him mainly as so much more preferable than the decrepit McCain misses the core problem. Obama will do nothing to change the corrupt, unworthy political system. He is a talker, not an agent of change, certainly not systemic political change that requires bucking the elite status quo political powers that pull the strings of the two-party plutocracy.
Make you vote count. Make it a vote against all Democratic and Republican candidates and against the two-party plutocracy that makes a mockery of our democracy, which is as fake and delusional as any in the world. The time is right for Americans to vote for third party or independent presidential and congressional candidates, not because any of them can be elected, but as an action to demonstrate through voting that they reject the two-party duopoly. Nonvoters are ignored, but we need to get on the electoral scoreboard with votes against the two-party status quo.
[Joel S. Hirschhorn can be contacted through www.delusionaldemocracy.com.]
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 3 thumbs so far
The views expressed in this
article are those of Joel S. Hirschhorn only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Joel S. Hirschhorn is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
I think the word "democracy" is used wrongly when used in reference to America. America is a republic, and I know you know that, because I went to your website and it was the fifth word on the page. My concern is that the word "democracy" is used so much when speaking of America, it almost replaces the word "republic". This has been done so much, even our leaders call America a democracy and Bush says we are spreading democracy in Iraq. This mindset trickles down into our school system and our kids graduate and think we are a democracy. They don't even realize the founding fathers despised democracy. So I guess my point is this: be careful about how you characterize our form of government, because the careless use of one simple word contributes to the ignorance of the American voter.
America is not a democracy, it is a republic, blah blah blah!
(Democracy is teh m0b rule! Tyrrany of the maj0rity!)
1. America IS a republic. (DUH!)
2. But that does not mean America is not a democracy as well.'
People who continue that idiotic false dichotomy do not understand the definition of words. Democracy is a MODE OF GOVERNANCE while republic is a STATE FORM. One can have democracy within any state form or a stateless society. For instance a democratic monarchy is not a contradiction, provided of course that it is a limited monarchy (for obvious reasons, an absolute monarchy is incompatible with democracy). Likewise a republic may or may not be democratic. The United States is a democratic republic.
3. People who insist that America is a republic but not a democracy are at worst fascists, or at best terribly ignorant. You know who else was a republic but not a democracy? The Third Reich! After all, Nazi Germany had a republican state form. Not to mention, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
4. The founding fathers despised democracy? Really? I understand that Ron Paul said that, but as much as I respect him, Ron Paul is ahuman being and he can and has been wrong. The problem is that to say that the "founding fathers" "despised" democracy is simply not correct.
First of all, the Founding Fathers were not part of a hive mind. They had their own individual opinions. After all, wasn't Alexander Hamilton a founding father? Hamilton was a monarchist! Should I say that the founding fathers therefore"despised republic" as well? Second of all, Thomas Jefferson accepted the name Democratic-Republican for his party. So much for hating democracy... Third of all, I am unaware of any founding father who "despised" democracy. Some were favorable of democracy. Others had serious misgivings about democracy. (Something which hasn't been tried in centuries prior.)
There certainly is a way out, though not likely to be taken. Regions of america have distinctly different and often competing interests. It is time to break it apart and allow the natual melding of common interest areas. There is a disaster unfolding and neither candidate nor any potential candidate will be able to stem the oncoming tide. In four years we will see an America through very tired eyes, and any figurehead will likely have a very limited tenure if any tenure at all.
Want to comment on this
article? Leave your comment here. Your email address is
required to track your comment. However, we will neither
publish your email address nor distribute it to other
organizations or persons. The only reason we might use
it would be if we needed to contact you regarding your
comment. All comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
