Monday, April 21, 2008

5 Reasons We'll Never Have Another Good President

Bush drinking beer



1. People Want a President They'd Like to Have a Beer With
I don't understand this rationale. If you're in a bar, and you strike up a conversation with someone, would you rather talk with the guy who can form complete sentences and speak intelligently about a wide range of subjects or the guy who says 'nucular' and talks about how the pope gave an 'awesome' speech?

If you hire an accountant would you say, "Well, he totally screwed up my tax return, but he's a hell of a guy to have a beer with!"? No! So why would people vote for someone who's borderline retarded and will bankrupt our country just because he seems like an OK guy? You're voting for the leader of the free world, not a drinking buddy.

2. False Patriotism
Since 9/11, politicians have been falling all over themselves trying to show that they're patriotic and the other guy isn't. The sad thing is that too many people in our country think that anyone who wears a flag lapel pin and has a yellow ribbon magnet on their car is a true patriot and everyone else hates America. Many politicians have hoodwinked Americans into believing that the only true patriots are those who support everything the Bush administration does. Those who oppose him and the war are anti-American Communists and Al Qaeda sympathisers (if not full-fledged terrorists). This type of thinking is incredibly dangerous and is the reason we are stuck in our current foreign policy mess.

Being critical of our 'leaders' and the actions they take in OUR names does not make a person anti-American. True patriotism is loving your country enough to want it to be the best country it possibly can be and that often means opposing those who are in power.

3. Support of the Wrong Issues
We see poll after poll showing that the two biggest concerns for Americans in the upcoming election are the economy and the war in Iraq. Yet, many Americans vote for a candidate based on abortion, flag burning, gay marriage and gun control. Politicians know this so they often cater to voters who want abortion, flag burning, and gay marriage banned and fear that the government is "gonna take away mah guns!" The dirty secret is that politicians who pay lip service to those issues know that Roe v. Wade isn't going to be overturned and the second amendment isn't going to be repealed. But, they talk tough and a certain segment of our society votes for them. Of course, they do nothing about the hot button issues and they have no answers for the true problems facing our country (such as the economy).

4. People Want a President Who Tells the Truth
People didn't believe Bill Clinton when he said he smoked pot but didn't inhale. People don't believe Obama when he says that he never heard any of Reverend Wright's crazy sermons, and the media can't stop talking about Hillary's lies about snipers in Bosnia.

Let's face it - politicians are going to lie. They lie all the time. We as Americans have to learn to distinguish between the insignificant lies (whether or not a guy smoked pot thirty years ago) and the truly significant ones (Iraq had weapons of mass destruction).

5. People DON'T Want a President Who Tells the Truth
Americans get so upset about politicians and their inability to be honest, but get all bent out of shape when they say something true that's the least bit controversial. Obama has taken a lot of heat from the media about his comments regarding Pennsylvanians clinging to guns and religion. Obama has backtracked some and said that he 'misspoke' (which is this year's buzzword). I wish he would just stick to his guns (no pun intended) and say, "I meant it and it's true." if he actually believes what he said. We had eight years of Bill Clinton parsing every word and never uttering a sentence that didn't pass through some type of focus group filter. It would be truly refreshing to have a president say what he believes is right even if it's politically incorrect.