"Taking the Country Back"

Michelle Bachmann, in her announcement that she's now a candidate for president, used one of the phrases that, if I were president, I'd appoint a commission to ban.

"Take the Country Back." Or, usually, "TAKE THE COUNTRY BACK!!!"

Someone out there...please tell me. Who does she want to take the country back, uh, from?

That phrase scares me a bit, to be perfectly truthful. It sounds like something the head of an army would say before people start disappearing. Something that Stalin would have said in 1937.

Of course, where you stand on the phrase depends on where you sit. The religious right wants to take the country back from people that have criminalized saying "Merry Christmas." (How many people have been put in jail because of it?) Or, they want to take the country back from poeple that don't believe in Jesus.

Liberals want to take the country back from dittoheads and Glenn Beck, who have created a "conserva-industry." I'm surprised no one has come out with a mayonaisse that "is now 30% more conservative!!"

I want to take the country back from people who simply don't think, can't think, or think that thinking is overrated. What do you think of that?

Politics and Moral Authority

The outrage over the Weiner photo (tee hee) has me thinking a bit. When exactly did elected officials become the beacon of morality in America. People cheat on their wives, send lewd photos, and make questionable decisions everyday; in all walks of life. Why is it, then, that the debate gets hijacked over a stupid incident like this?

I honestly don't care what an official does as long as it does not impede his/her ability to make an unbiased decision on an important issue. I guess the thought goes that "we elect these people to represent me and I don't behave that way."

True, but I don't go to church. Don't really care if my elected officials go to church or not. And, there's more people like me than there are truly religious people in America.

So...I don't want you to be my moral compass. I want you to make important decisions THAT IMPACT THE REPUBLIC. A photo of your naughty bits to a "traumatized" young lady (who will probably get a book deal and press tour out of it) doesn't really do anything for me or imperil the country in any fashion.

Again...enough noise. Get to work.

Rep. Weiner and his...photo

Elected officials make mistakes. What I truly despise are Democrats that make a big deal over Republican indiscretions and vice-versa.

Now...let's all move on, becauase there is nothing to see here. For all the Republicans that are gloating....see Gingrich, Newt and and Foley, Mark.

Let's focus on the important issues.

Sarah! and Michelle

If anyone is reading this, I'll try to avoid six months between posts.

I guess, as a moderate, there are a couple of things that I do not understand about the Right. And, since you can't have a civilized discussion about these things anymore, I'll throw it open to someone who can educate me.

I simply do not get the Palin/Bachmann(sp?) attraction. I have yet to see why anyone would want these folks to be president. And, it's not a gender issue...I don't see why a reasonable person would look at them and think "there's my president."

Part of it is belief. I have religious beliefs, but I don't think they are central to how I define myself. A conservative person holds their beliefs central to their identity and (this is what I don't understand) extends the concept of belief to other areas of their lives.

Palin's attraction, I think, is that it is totally unimportant to her that what she says is factually correct. She believes it to be so, therefore, to her and those like her, that's all that matters. It's like when the Bush Administration says "Mission Accomplished" it is, no matter what the reality is.

Reality is what you believe it to be. Facts be damned.

Now, on a certain level, that's a nice place to be. But, when you have the fate of many, many people hanging on every action, it's a terrifying prospect. It really reminds me of the Soviet Union, where all someone had to say that genes didn't exist and...poof...they don't.

It all comes back to something I firmly believe...that the right wing of the Republican Party is the closest we've come to having a Sovietized political system. And, since I believe it, it must be true.