Years ago, my son, who has no interest in politics at all, told me he didn't know if he should vote in an upcoming election because he paid no attention to the candidates, was unfamiliar with the issues and didn't know which party's governing philosophy he agreed with.
Normally, I'd tell such a person "Don't vote. The country doesn't need uninformed knuckleheads like you."
I've never been a proponent of the 'everybody must vote' campaigns. I don't want uninformed knuckleheads voting because I believe that's how we wind up with Governor Daytons and Representative Weiners.
Not to mention, President Obama. "Hope and Change"???? Only the uninformed and supremely gullible could fall for that.
Hope and Change is how con men have been suckering marks for thousands of years. I
hope you're not a crook and the
change you enact on my circumstances will be for the best.
It never is.
On the other hand, in politics, like sports, you can only vote for one of the idiots running for office and if the Republicans insist on offering choices like John McCain, no good will come of it.
Hey, Mitt Romney!! We chose McCain over you! Doesn't that tell you something??
GO AWAY.
Anyway, back in the day, I told my son who is not a knucklehead, that he could figure out who to vote for by answering three simple questions.
"Would you rather pay more or less in taxes?" I asked him.
"Less." he said.
"Would you rather fight terrorists in our back yard or their back yard?"
"Theirs."
"Do you think abortion is a good idea or a bad idea?"
"Bad."
"Congratulations, " I told him. "You're a Conservative. Vote Republican across the board."
That was all about a decade ago and now we have a new stark comparison in the difference in the world view of left vs. right.
What do
Bill Clinton,
Larry Craig,
Mark Foley and
Anthony Weiner have in common?
They are all elected officials who happened to create sex scandals. Some of these incidences were criminal, some merely sordid, all demonstrated an appalling lack of character, common sense and judgement.
If you're a conservative.
If you're a liberal, sexual harassment, rape accusations and electronic exhibitionism are no big deal because character, common sense and judgement are not virtues to be demanded of in one's elected officials.
What's the biggest difference in the four powerful federal office holders I mentioned above? Bill Clinton and Anthony Weiner did not resign their offices. They're both liberal Democrats and knew that their constituents would continue to support them. Bill Clinton is beloved by the left, especially liberal women, despite the fact that he has demonstrated over and over and over again that he holds women in contempt and views them primarily as sex toys, here on earth to entertain him. I believe he belongs in prison.
Anthony Weiner didn't break any laws and I'm sure that if his district held a special election tomorrow, he'd win. He's a liberal Democrat and his constituents don't think character, common sense and judgement are necessary in the folks they send to Washington to oversee the federal budget, run the nation's economy, take over the health care coverage of 300 million people and decide whether or when to declare war.
They would literally give a monkey a loaded gun if they thought the monkey were a Democrat.
Hell, a monkey would be a Democrat, wouldn't it?
Larry Craig and Mark Foley resigned their offices. What Foley did was criminal, as it involved a minor. Like Weiner's behavior, it was conducted online, which is probably the only reason Foley isn't in prison. Unlike Weiner, Foley knew that the conservatives who elected him would not support a predatory pig as their representative in Congress.
What Larry Craig did was extremely stupid. He did get arrested but I'm not at all sure he should have been. Is it really illegal to try to pick up strangers for sex in the Mpls/St. Paul airport? It's illegal to
have sex in the airport, but that's not what Senator Craig did.
Regardless, Craig was elected by conservatives and they won't put up with behavior that demonstrates such a monumental lack of character, judgement and common sense.
What we have here is not a double standard. It's two political parties, one of which has standards and the other doesn't.
So, if you know someone who doesn't know whether they're a conservative or a liberal, ask them this; "Do you think the folks to whom we give the power to declare war ought to know better than to tweet their meat to strangers?"
