Here Comes The Clown
There is a line from an old standard that goes, “It's a Barnum Bailey world just as phony as it could be. . ..” Given the current crop of Republican candidates for president and the press coverage of them, it seems the song with a bit of modification might well apply. You will have to admit Walt Disney came up with better cast of characters when he dreamed up the story of Snow White. Looking at how many debates the Republican candidates have participated in, I am wondering why they just don't spill out of some vintage VW and cavort with their unique take on slapstick.
Thanks to the efforts of cable news – the 24/7 coverage of anything and everything – any fool who has a gift of gab thinks that is enough to qualify them to be president. Given the way the pundits wax on the legitimacy of anyone's candidacy gives credibility to any fool who has the temerity to step forward, and this farce is played out on tv which has become nothing less than a world beyond the grasp of sane people. The unlimited time these cable personalities have to devote to the absurd makes the absurd common place. We have before us fools who only claim of legitimacy centers on their ability to believe in their own delusional aspirations and their idiotic assessment of the issues facing the nation, not to mention remedies that have no basis in reality.
How else can folks who disdain science even attempt to claim they have an ability to solve problems that have evolved after all this time. One ridiculous claim after another spews forth from their cavernous mouths with the so called rationale being that it is belief based. Thus, Rick Perry can spout sheer nonsense and conclude it is my belief. Hell, you can believe the world is flat but that doesn't make it so. Enter, Michelle Bachman who believes that “god” had directed her to the chase. If any other person made that claim, they would be shot up with a psychotropic drug and not released till they were stabilize and their thoughts receded to the point that they were a bit more connected to reality.
Then, enter Cain, a man who compares closing pizza shops with running the country. His 9,9,9 plan is a prescription for selling pizza and is nothing less than that old flat tax proposal. He believes that the way of out of this financial mess is to tax the hell out of everyone with a sales tax. Of course, this plan is not new, but the beauty and genius of the clown is to take things out of reality and make them really big and foolish though we must admit that the tax laws need some simplification so that everyone contributes. Heck, Cain thinks he can talk his way out of anything – I guess the lesson of the last election didn't escape his attention.
Rick S. is a case study in sheer madness. To think you have the moral high ground without a shred of evidence save one's own delusional thoughts is tantamount to being so far out on a rational limb that it is but moments before it snaps and sends one down the rabbit hole of intolerance. Then of course there is the hypocrite of our times, ol' Newt, the bombastic fool who thinks that because he mastered the old Reader's Digest “Word Power” section, he is qualified to be called an intellectual. With his pause inflected non sense about any subject one might pose to him, he attempts to be professorial but to my mind Professor Irwin Corey made more sense. Here is a man so bereft of any redeeming value that he can chastise any who doesn't subscribe to his vision which basically amounts to him acquiring enough power so he can gather enough capital to shower his latest love interest with Tiffany jewelry. These so called candidates decry a national health care system while they feed at the trough that insurance companies fill with campaign funds so that their over paid and morally inept CEO's can fatten their personal fortunes while they over charge for health care. It's like a protection racket but made legal by a Congress who are beyond any redeeming value. The outlier on this fringe grouping is Rand Paul who raised a fool in his image. While surely his philosophy of non intervention by a government maybe practical in areas of personal morality – one wonders what is to be done in areas say like public transportation. Huntsman seems to be rational which is why he is not electable by the standards set by the new right and its tea party activists though he seems to play the game of coming up with some fool hardy idea, like less taxes – when the problem with the deficit is that good old boy W went to war and cut taxes.
Which leads us to Romney, who if it weren't for his totally duplicitous nature, might actually be a viable leader. Where this man falls short of the mark is his lack of a backbone. He did do some good things while governor, though touting yourself as a “job creator” or “businessman” because your raided corporations and laid off people doesn't qualify one as statesman merely another corporate scoundrel. He, at least once upon a time, had the ability to recognize the needs of people and deliver. Yet now he is but a parody of his former self and kowtowing to crazies will eventually make him a crazy. Which brings us to the point that Republicans in their primary have always displayed a distaste for anyone who might be a moderate. Does anyone remember Governor Rockefeller giving the finger to the convention?
In reviewing, these candidates, I wonder how they acquire the chutzpah to come up from underneath their rocks and become so brazen as to think that they actually had the “right stuff.” Was it a certain flavor of Kool-Aid that made them think they were ready? Was it the folks who populated the ranks of the Tea Party who made them believe that just being stupid was enough? What propelled this collection of clowns to come forward? I believe it is the lack of leadership on Obama's part. I believe it is the failure to seize the moment when the President was given all three branches of government because people wanted hope and change. What we got was left over Republican policies and a double down of fool hardy actions. Let's face it, we should be out of the wars, we should have a single payer option, we should have an equitable tax policy, we should have laws and enforcement of laws of the banks and the stock markets, we should have meaningful government actions that improve the lives and the conditions under which we live. This total let down and the example of a man who words got him where he is has open the floodgates and let the flotsam and jetsam of our national politics to spill out. We exist in nothing less than a Barnum and Bailey world where nothing is real, and unfortunately, not even entertaining.
