Ok, this isn't the blog I was planning to write, this is one that I had to write....the one I was planning to write I still will, but for now this is it. I hope you come back in a few days for the one I was planning to write. But for now, what are your thoughts about this?
Have you ever been in a situation where you needed a quick rejoinder and it didn't come until you were standing in the shower a day later? Why does that happen? Why can't we be quick and ready for the comeback just like any character in an Aaron Sorkin script? I love his comebacks...they are as smooth as Cary Grant, witty as Hugh Grant and intelligent as....wow, who is intelligent any more without a writer? I am certain that in today's political scene so many get caught in a lie because they think if they say anything it is better than saying nothing...uh wrong. If you have nothing to say then use my dad's best weapon, the stare. It would have leveled Chris Matthews. Say nothing and stare...I love it. Stares don't lie..you can't spin a stare. Just lower your eyes a bit and fasten in on the opponent...and don't stop. You will never lose.
Living through the politics of last week and now this week make us eligible for some kind of merit badge. But I would make one of the qualifications for this badge having to attend the morning spin meeting of ALL the politicians...(that's right kids this is a non partisan blog - all of the politicians are guilty of everything I am about to list)
The spin meetings go a bit like this...a gavel strikes the desk (there must always be a gavel, every politician loves a gavel) and the meeting is called to order.
Chairman or chief talking point guy....."Ok here are your talking points...do not try to get cute and go off script. We are not hiring you for your opinion, only for your hair...so just say what we tell you to say. Now Buffy and Todd went off script yesterday so they have to go back on the morning shows today, and with a straight face tell America they didn't say what we heard them say yesterday. As soon as you tell America you didn't say what they heard you say but this is what I really did say, they will believe you......because they are STUPID."
Stupid? I think when someone says something one day and then tells me the next day they didn't say what they said I might notice.
After all we do have fact checkers, right?
But then I heard George Will say the fact checkers are not factual.
America! What are we to do?
It doesn't matter who you listen to, it is no longer news, it is someone's opinion. And opinions are like...well I can't really say and maintain my lady like demeanor.
Bill Clinton, Clint Eastwood, Sandra Fluke, and Chris Christie.....who are they to my life? I mean really...
I feel badly that the Democrats think they need Bill Clinton to close a deal. I feel terrible that Clint Eastwood made fun of a process that should have some dignity, I do not want to pay for Sandra's birth control...and I am more than a little bugged that she is insisting that a Catholic University should be made to alter their beliefs. All for a prescription she could easily get at Wal-Mart for the price of a couple of six packs. Chris Christie to me was auditioning for 2016, I don't think he even likes Romney. And how could Obama and Clinton like each other? Yet there they are...all of them standing together after beating each others brains in not that long ago. Smiling and pretending...Pretending and smiling. And here we are, treading water until all this is finally over. Red states, light blue states, pink states, yellow states....
So where do we go now? How do we make an informed decision when everyone is telling us something different on any given day?
Just put a wet finger in the air.....that is about as knowledgeable as you need to be.
I was in a "how to make and take a poll" class in college. My professor was a brilliant political scientist who told us unequivocally that a poll can say anything you want it to say. And it always leans toward the group who pays for it. No big surprise there. So I never believe polls, sort of like a butcher never eats his own sausage. I listened to Tom Friedman yesterday talk about abortion...he said that the Republican platform was extreme in that there are no exceptions for abortions. I think that particular plank is odd too. How can there never be an exception? But yet for the last 30 years that plank has been there. It is supposed to show that Republicans are pro life. That's how you do it? But here is the kicker...wait for it. Tom goes on and on about how this proves Republicans are extremists in that they won't support an exception rule. Yet when he is confronted with an equally extreme Democratic plank that calls for abortions at any time, including partial birth, third trimester and babies born alive, he doesn't even blink...he says, "I am a planned parenthood democrat and I support the democratic platform.". If you are to ask me which social issue is my hot button it is abortion, so I have given this a lot of thought. I know there are situations, such as rape, incest and health of the mother where women should be able to prayerfully make a choice against continuing a pregnancy. However out of the thousands of abortions that occur, statistically, very few fall under those 3 exceptions. As for partial birth abortions, and babies born alive, Caligula would be shocked. I remember a nurse contacting a friend of mine who is a deputy district attorney to report having to watch a baby die that was born alive from an abortion. She was ordered by the doctor to put the baby in the next room, unattended, to simply die. My DA friend tried to do something about it, but was stopped with this logic, it was legal. According to the law the baby was not a baby, it was an abortion. Legal? Yep. Sorry Tom Friedman, you are wrong on this one. And planned parenthood?....the first 4 topics on their web page are abortion, birth control, morning after pill and sexually transmitted diseases. My mother was an advocate of abortion because she watched a friend in the early 60's die from a botched abortion. She never wanted that to happen to anyone again. She thought I was awful.....an extremist. But I think this is how decisions come together. We get together in a room and present our ideas. All or nothing is hardly how any platform should be on any plank We come together, we reason together and then we have a consensus. I still live by the credo that if everyone goes away a little unhappy then the fairest thing probably occurred.
When the jobs numbers come out next Friday think any Republican working for the cause of electing Romney will be happy if they show more Americans have gone back to work? Sadly I don't. There is not one sticking point in this election because no matter what is said someone comes out to spin it in their favor. The campaigns don't seem to care about Americans, just winning...beating the other guy.
Just winning. And are we all going to lose? There are 23 million Americans out of work, probably many more than that. Half of America is on some kind of government aid, and if you think it isn't the easiest thing in the world to get unemployment insurance think again. My son's company downsized, he lost his job and applied for unemployment. It was all done online with no accountability at all. There was no line to stand in, no person to face.....nothing. It was a very happy day when it was over and he was working. Even though as a college graduate he is working 2 part time jobs, neither in his field.
However even with all this being said, I am not pessimistic. I believe in America. I believe that no matter who is elected we will rise up and fix the problems ourselves. We will start businesses and invent things, we will figure it out. I believe this country is the greatest country, with the greatest form of government on earth. A good friend of mine listened to my rant one day and then said to me, "Donna when this is over (meaning the election) we will all be fine." I think so too...We need to have differences and then agree to disagree. I hope we can appreciate our differences and understand that nothing works when we all look at the picture the same way. That is why there are 9 justices, 3 branches of government....yin and yang.....back and forth...no tyranny, no Castro or Chavez.
There has to be someone to tell us when we aren't wearing any clothes.
And I am always happy to do it.....
