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Jan
09

Taking “Occupy” To The Next Level

By | Blog, Culture, Politics

Angry SignI’m not necessarily a big Occupy guy although I understand and sympothize with the ideas. Occupy needs to move beyond camping, however, if it’s going to start effecting real change. Occupy is also going to have to cooeless around some clearly communicated values and goals. It’s going to have to start trying to wrest the reins of power from the very 1% it rails against. This is what has made the Tea Party so effective. They turned their movement into a political power. Like it or not its political power that effects change.

Occupy likes to think of itself as an ultra-democratic, grass roots, no formal organization and leaderless body. That’s great for a utopian dream, but impractical in today’s reality. You can take your hippie-dippie values and shove ‘em, the only thing that counts is real change and real change takes leaders and solid ideas. Unfortunately or fortunately the only way to make real change is to wield the levers of power. The two levers of power in this world are money and politics. So either Occupy finds some very rich support or they had better start figuring out how to get folks elected to local, state and national office. I’m sure most Occupy folks abhor money and politics but if they don’t get over this problem soon, they will amount to a hill of beans. Yell, scream and shove signs in my face all day and I don’t care. Why don’t you pick up a shovel and get to work already. Stop shouting and DO something.

Again, this is where you have to greatly respect the Tea Party. They did their protests in the park and waved their signs, and then they got to work getting people elected. They realized the current folks in power were not going to pay attention to them, so they worked to get them out in favor of candidates who held values closer to their own. It didn’t always work and they lost plenty of times, but they moved the needle.

This is how it works and unfortunately I don’t see any ambition or organization in Occupy to do anything like this. People WILL tire of your bitching and complaining if that’s all you seem to do. 2012 is the make or break year for Occupy. Time to stand up or fade away.

Dec
16

Ron Paul – The Only Intellectually Honest Republican

By | Blog, Politics

Ron PaulI’m a Democrat. Pretty much always have been and I support President Obama, for the most part. I certainly wish he would play a lot tougher with the Republicans who, no matter how much good will he may show them, will never truly respect or want to work with him.

I am watching with great interest the Republican process to see who will challenge Obama next year. It has been quite shocking to see the collection of candidates they have to choose from. And here we thought George W Bush was not very smart. Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Michelle Bachman; these guys make Bush look like Albert Einstein. When did dim witted become the new black in Republican politics?

Of course even those who are not completely out to lunch are full of s*it. Politicians have always been full of s*it, but they used to be better at hiding it. These days, it seems, you don’t even need to.

I am not a big fan of Ron Paul and I’m certainly not a Libertarian. Yes, remember Ron Paul isn’t even a real Republican, he’s a Libertarian. Twice he was their candidate for President. However, the more I watch and listen this campaign year the more it becomes painfully obvious that Ron Paul is the only intellectually honest Republican left. I don’t agree with most of Paul’s positions and I wouldn’t vote for him for president, but what a breath of fresh air he is into a room full of skullduggery. It’s no wonder he gets good support from young people. The youth these days can sniff out bull crap a mile away and they’re sick of it. Young people know Paul is the only intellectually honest Republican and they love him for that.

Despite being a Democrat, I don’t think the country would be a better place if everyone was a Democrat. We need a strong two party system, at least two parties. But the Republican party is not strong and full of intellectually honest people. It seems to only value the dim witted, completely non flexible types. Donald Trump, Christine O’Donnell, Sarah Palin. This is your new Republican party. I can’t help think William F. Buckley himself would be embarrassed.

Nov
05

Politics 2012 – The Breaking Point

By | Blog, Politics

breaking pointI rarely do politics here, but I’m going to give you my analysis of the state of our nation as it stands politically and as we move into the presidential election year in 2012.

We are in a state of continual political overreaction. The pendulum always swings, but lately it has been swinging harder and faster than ever before. When the Republicans were swept out of office completely in 2008 their reaction was to believe their problem was they had not been conservative enough. The Tea Party was born and Republicans took a hard right turn. Now Democrats have been swept out of office just as dramatically in 2010. What will their reaction be? I am already hearing it. Progressives, liberals, whatever you want to call them; the hard left of the Democratic party has decided their problem is that they were not liberal enough. Too much compromise with the Republicans will be their diagnosis. The Democratic party is going to take a hard turn to the left going into 2012.

Where will that leave us? Going into 2012, Republicans dug in hard on the far right and not giving an inch. Democrats dug in hard and not giving an inch on the far left. When you have two opposing forces pulling that hard in opposite directions, I think we will be reaching a breaking point. As the saying goes, something’s got to give. Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity was great and well meaning but I fear it was a shout into the darkness. What are true moderate independents like myself to do when left with these choices? I’ve often lately wished for a third party, the Reasonable Party I call it. Anyone else interested?