July 16, 2008 - absence of Leadership

At the end of a previous blog, I posed the question: Where are the next Reagan’s?” Where are the “Reagan’s” that my little brothers, nephews & nieces will grow up with? Who will be their Reagans? Just as there were FDR’s for my Grandmother’s generation, Eisenhower’s for my parents & Ronaldus Maximus for me, this exposes a problem that has bothered me for awhile now… the absence of leadership in current day politics.


I once heard Sammy Hagar say that he felt one of the reasons Reagan was so popular was that Reagan actually believed in something. He did! And he let people know it! Reagan actually STOOD FOR SOMETHING!!!! And though it may not have been what you agreed with, one had to give him credit that he stood FOR SOMETHING…..unlike today’s politicians….all of which must first wet their index finger, hold it up and see which way the political winds are blowing…..heaven forbid we make one person upset with us…… perhaps it is best to toss out the baby with the bathwater, right?


We saw President Bush 43 take the bull by the horns in the days and months after 9-11, when once again, the wolf didn’t pass by the door…. And he should be commended for that. Yet in the last couple of years, we have NOT seen that from him…. A perfect example of that was in the days after the VA TECH Massacre of April 2007. Not that it is exactly the President’s duty to make an issue of something like that, but his pansy non-statement and his vanilla remarks were most telling… THERE & THEN was a time he could have seized the moment and shown some muscle. Nope… he failed.


So let’s be realistic, though I will not be voting for either, McCain or Obama will be sworn in this January to succeed President Bush. The lesser of two evils you say? Well, as Ayn Rand said, “The lesser of two evils is still evil”, and in this case, I am not quite sure which one of the two is more evil? Are either of them our next Reagan? HARDLY!!! Both are the typical Senate wishy-washers who always have & always will hold that precious moist finger to the air to see which way the political winds blow. Instead of consulting the US Constitution for direction and legality, they will wait for a Gallup/CNN poll to find out what 51% of the people want. Do either of them have the charisma to lead? Not in my opinion. Obama delivers a helluva speech, and that will probably be enough…..nevermind he doesn’t say anything of any substance at all…. But the fact that he (and McCain will do this too) both come out between now & November to let the American people know they are both:

1) for jobs
2) they both support education
3) both want a strong America, and finally
4) both were against 9-11

And the great number of uninformed voters will walk away with just that. When they are quizzed, they will say: “I am voting for Obama/McCain.” Then when you ask them why, they will say: “well, he is for jobs…. He supports education…. He wants a strong America…. And he felt the same way I did after 9-11!” If pressed, they may add that Obama is a good orator or something to the likes of that. Oh, how could I forget? Obama is for CHANGE. Ever hear of a guy named V.I. Lenin? He was for change as well….. he advocated change & talked about it a lot. He finally came to power in Russia….. no, he did not overthrow the Czar, he overthrew a democratically elected parliament (the Czar abdicated in Feb. of 1917, the Revolution was in Oct. of 1917, according to the old style Julian Calendar).


Change for change’s sake, right?

Revolution for the hell of it, right?


PS: Back in 2004, I asked A LOT of people who they were voting for in the Presidential election…. And when they told me who, I would ask them “why?” Of ALL but just one of the people I asked that responded “John Kerry”, when asked why, here is what they would say:

Because George W. Bush is a Nazi!

Because George W. is retarded!

Because George W. Bush was selected not elected!

Because Bush lied about Weapons of Mass Destruction!

Because Bush (insert other misunderstood point they heard on David Letterman or the Jon Stewart show here) If Letterman, Leno, Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert said it, it has to be true!!!! And usually, THAT was the ONLY source of news & current events for these poor unconscious individuals.

NO ONE, but one person, could tell me WHY they were voting for John Kerry, they only told me WHY they were not voting for George W. Bush. I guess if Charles Manson had been running that year, he too, would have received the 48% of the vote John Kerry did, the way it sounded. The one person who told me why they were voting for John Kerry, and actually told me why, was my Step Mother, Barbara….. she never once offered me up some nonsense about WMD’s or he knew about 9-11, etc