Greetings, Gentle Reader,
We have always referred to the election season as "The Silly Season." We had good reason for this bit of levity. Seemingly sane people can be persuaded by the smoothest talker in town to vote for the worst, dumbest, most crooked guy in town. They will vote themselves a tax increase without a second thought. All it takes is smooooth packaging, by a smooooth talker.
Somehow, this year the silly season has ceased to be silly. It has become fraught with a level of danger to which we are unaccustomed. Voting for someone who says he is going to cut our taxes, when his history says he will raise them, is silly, but not dangerous. Voting for the guy who says he will give us the moon all wrapped up in shiny paper is silly, but not dangerous.
Now we are being persuaded to vote for a guy, some of whose cohorts think and say is Jesus Christ. That scares me. Neither of today’s candidates is Jesus Christ, but we are being encouraged to think one of them is precisely that. I may be overreacting, but I think this is dangerous. It wouldn’t be dangerous, if everyone knew he was just a plain, garden-variety politician, but many seem not to know that.
I may have little clout in this situation, but I want to tell all my readers that we have two choices. One the one hand, we have a crusty old coot, who is a dyed-in-the-wool American. He would go to war, personally, to defend us if he had to do so. He isn’t all we could wish, but he is what we have, and he will not give away the "store", so to speak, in order to persuade our enemies (and we have a lot of them) not to attack us.
On the other hand we have a smooth talker with no experience, one who has voted "present" a great deal of the time, no matter how important the question at hand. When/if Vladimir Putin tries to do to us what he did to Georgia, he will come up a few body parts short, if we have the war horse in power. If we have the other guy, we and he will discover you cannot vote "present" if the bombs are raining down. Nor can you vote "present" when a tank has you in it’s sights. That being the case, we Americans just might be the ones who will come up a few body parts (and a few cities) short, if we are attacked by a powerful enemy.
During this last two weeks, in the last 30 minutes of each trading day, there came what was called a "flurry of activity." It was said to be done late enough that no one could respond. Was it economical warfare? Maybe. Has it had a gruesome effect? Absolutely. Who did it? We don’t know. We haven’t been told.
These are the types of things we are facing today. Some are very dangerous to us as individuals and as a nation, so let’s be wise. In fact, let’s not be so naive as to fall for a charmer, who is equally naive. We need a ornery old war horse, not a popularity contest winner.
Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter
Return to the Neighborhood.
We have always referred to the election season as "The Silly Season." We had good reason for this bit of levity. Seemingly sane people can be persuaded by the smoothest talker in town to vote for the worst, dumbest, most crooked guy in town. They will vote themselves a tax increase without a second thought. All it takes is smooooth packaging, by a smooooth talker.
Somehow, this year the silly season has ceased to be silly. It has become fraught with a level of danger to which we are unaccustomed. Voting for someone who says he is going to cut our taxes, when his history says he will raise them, is silly, but not dangerous. Voting for the guy who says he will give us the moon all wrapped up in shiny paper is silly, but not dangerous.
Now we are being persuaded to vote for a guy, some of whose cohorts think and say is Jesus Christ. That scares me. Neither of today’s candidates is Jesus Christ, but we are being encouraged to think one of them is precisely that. I may be overreacting, but I think this is dangerous. It wouldn’t be dangerous, if everyone knew he was just a plain, garden-variety politician, but many seem not to know that.
I may have little clout in this situation, but I want to tell all my readers that we have two choices. One the one hand, we have a crusty old coot, who is a dyed-in-the-wool American. He would go to war, personally, to defend us if he had to do so. He isn’t all we could wish, but he is what we have, and he will not give away the "store", so to speak, in order to persuade our enemies (and we have a lot of them) not to attack us.
On the other hand we have a smooth talker with no experience, one who has voted "present" a great deal of the time, no matter how important the question at hand. When/if Vladimir Putin tries to do to us what he did to Georgia, he will come up a few body parts short, if we have the war horse in power. If we have the other guy, we and he will discover you cannot vote "present" if the bombs are raining down. Nor can you vote "present" when a tank has you in it’s sights. That being the case, we Americans just might be the ones who will come up a few body parts (and a few cities) short, if we are attacked by a powerful enemy.
This all sounds very much like high drama, but it is an ever-present danger in today’s world.
Just to name a few of the leaders who wish us ill, we can start with Putin, Ahmadinejad, Castro, Chavez, Morales, Assad, Qaddafi, Kim Jong Il, and China’s top guy, whatever his name is.
Just to name a few of the leaders who wish us ill, we can start with Putin, Ahmadinejad, Castro, Chavez, Morales, Assad, Qaddafi, Kim Jong Il, and China’s top guy, whatever his name is.
During this last two weeks, in the last 30 minutes of each trading day, there came what was called a "flurry of activity." It was said to be done late enough that no one could respond. Was it economical warfare? Maybe. Has it had a gruesome effect? Absolutely. Who did it? We don’t know. We haven’t been told.
These are the types of things we are facing today. Some are very dangerous to us as individuals and as a nation, so let’s be wise. In fact, let’s not be so naive as to fall for a charmer, who is equally naive. We need a ornery old war horse, not a popularity contest winner.
Until next time,
Muriel Sluyter
Return to the Neighborhood.
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1 comments:
Cindy Beck, author said...
Muriel,
You've hit the nail on the head! If the right poeple would listen to your advice, maybe we could pull this country off the terrible path down which it's headed.