Elected Officials

Presidents, Senators, and other elected officials I would like to see.

            I have lost faith in pretty much all elected officials. Republican, Democrat, Independent, or whatever party. I have some high hopes for Al Franken if he does not turn into a “tell them what they want to hear” politician. I don’t agree with a lot of his stances, but I hope he is able to speak with the same biting oratory he did as a comedian and political commentator. You can also believe I would rather hear a lot more terminator comments from Arnold than trying to find a way that keeps everybody happy with California’s “all the people, all the time” mentality.

            That’s what I’m talking about. I want to see someone that gets on the television and tells it like it is. Example, how about 2 years ago when the subprime and derivative crisis started coming to light and Bernanke, Bush, and others stated. “There is plenty of liquidity in the system to handle these issues” or “AIG will only need 80 billion dollars to get itself back on track”. Well, here we are after a 185 billion dollars and the company still may be in trouble. We have also bailed out other institutions that “won’t have any issues with the subprime situation”. We print money for Fannie and Freddie; we engineered sales of Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and a slew of banks.  Not only that but now America, a capitalist society like it or not, makes the decision on who is and who is not big enough to fail! Wait a minute, when I was in school we were taught that the risk takers were rewarded lavishly and punished punitively, no exceptions. Yes, there would be a lot of pain for a lot of people if we did let some of these industries fail but hey, you don’t quit playing with fire until after you get burned.

            Anyway, back to my ideal elected official. This congressman or woman would be able to prioritize and have no problem with telling someone to get over themselves. For instance, with the war in Iraq, a financial crisis, and families struggling to make ends meet, and someone harasses that congress person with a “Save the fill in the blank” campaign. I would vote for the politician that was quoted in the paper as saying. “That’s not a priority. We will have nothing to do with that at this time”. Give me a politician running for office that can look at the camera’s and say, “Yes, I did inhale. I was in college dumbass, what do you think.”

            I don’t believe any of these folks that we have elected when they tell me that they want to do the best for their constituents. I mean let us be real, if I have to be a millionaire to run for office then that puts most of us out to begin with. In addition, I can have no flaws, past transgressions, a firm opinion on any controversial topic. I must be able to gather campaign contributions from both sides such as PETA and The National Restaurants Association. I have never been comfortable with talking out of both sides of my mouth but our current crop of leaders has raised it to an art form. Once they are elected they spew out enough waffle to put a waffle house out of business. Bush 1; “Read my lips, no new taxes” you know what happened after that.  Obama, June 08; “When I am President, I will keep in place the moratorium on offshore drilling here in Florida and protect our coast”. August 08; CNN quoted him as saying that he would be willing to compromise his position on offshore drilling as long as it was part of a more overreaching strategy to lower energy cost. In 2004 both Democrat and Republican platforms announced a commitment to research and investment in alternative energy sources. Now while there have been a few pieces of legislation introduced, nothing has yielded any real or desirable results. It’s kind or reminiscent of President Carter’s big investment in synthetic fuels during the 70’s oil crisis, 19 billion dollars later and “thpttt”.

            The whole point is here that we have reached a point in this country where it is permissible to promise anything and later revoke it. A professional politician can get away with not taking a stand on an issue or even worse, take both sides and we do nothing. We move on and wait for the next big liars’ convention to elect someone that will surprise us with their actions after they are in office. Let’s get behind the person that had a bunch of speeding tickets when they were young but has a workable plan to fix public schools and raise teaches salaries. I want to vote for a former dancer that can bring a workable Medicaid plan to the table. Give me a President that did inhale but can bring peace to the Middle East and come up with a realistic plan for health care that doesn’t socialize it. They are probably out there somewhere, but because of their past and the fact that they might tell you your idea is full of &!^%, they would not get elected. I am tired of spin. I reject telling me what I want to hear. Insult me if I am wrong, It might be the only way I’ll listen. But give someone a chance if they have a valid point and plan, no matter who they are, what they look like, or whatever their background.