you’re only hurting yourself
by Shane Nicholson
Published: May 9, 2008
There’s a simple rule to American politics that most people fail to grasp or at the very least acknowledge: you never get what you want and you always get what you deserve.
If there’s anything to be learned from the last two presidential elections in our country, it is that this is absolute truth. In 2000, people went to polls and decided that they’d had enough Clinton, but couldn’t decide if Al Gore was different enough or George Bush was actually adept enough to lead our country for a few years. Karl Rove and William Buckley said he was, so that was good enough for forty-nine percent of the populous, but in the end we let the Supreme Court decide, the ultimate form of legislating from the bench. It was then the tamers told the failed business man from Texas to calm down and the day was - three months later - finally won. Who would’ve thought a Republican court would elect a Republican candidate? Take notes people.
So 2004 came around, and most people had decided that they’d had enough Bush to satisfy their needs for a while, but people weren’t sure who was good enough to replace him. (Bag of grain? Reheated cup of coffee from earlier this morning?) Howard Dean had loads of great ideas and enthusiasm and at least as much experience as our the sitting president, but he yelled just a little too much for our liking. So in stepped John Kerry. Dignified, respected, long-serving highly-honored member of the legislature, and a military man to boot! What more could we possibly ask for?
Apparently more of the same, because even perhaps the most qualified man in the nation to be the head of our executive branch just wasn’t quick enough to the punch, or maybe he wasn’t energetic enough on the campaign trail. But really, did he need to more blatantly call out the failures of the current administration in order to move himself to the poll position in the minds of Americans? Could all of those attack ads from groups backed by Karl Rove’s money-men really know truths about this statesman that no one else could ever possibly uncover? Did CBS really need improperly vetted documents about Bush’s own “military service” to prove he was nothing more than a chickenhawk like the rest of his party’s leaders? And what did any of that have to do with John Kerry anyway?
So people went with what they knew, even though they knew that what they knew wasn’t that good and they really wanted something else; and even though there was a perfectly good alternative with EXPERIENCE (including DEFENSE ISSUES) and CREDIBILITY out the yin-yang, we all came out the loser in the end. We bit off more than we could chew, and then when we finally choked that down we decided, “Eh, my jaw only hurts a little bit,” and went back for more. Then that little twinge in our cheek turned into an impacted molar and what looks like a series of painful surgeries that our insurance company won’t cover, of course.
We just don’t learn. Ever. We whine and moan and say we’re going to take out the garbage, and then two weeks later there are flies buzzing around the kitchen and we’re pointing fingers at everyone else in the house. Meanwhile, the neighbors are going about tidying up their mess, maybe because they’d like to get out from under their $650,000 three bedroom, two bath in the suburbs before their mortgage swallows them whole. Which neighbors, you ask? Why the British, of course.
Alright, so maybe they don’t live right next door, and they got some decent ocean-front property to go with that home, but that doesn’t change the fact that after years of lies and broken promises, seven days ago United Kingdom voters went to polls in council elections across the country and told Labour, “Thank you kindly for your stay. Now, please, start packing your things.”
With results like last weeks it’s no wonder Gordon Brown rejected calls for a general election after he took over as prime minister last summer. The writing was already on the wall for him and his party: we don’t like Blair and we don’t like you too much, either. So Gordon did the one thing he could, which was carry on the business of government without including the people he represented, and trying to latch onto ideas being tossed about by the Torries and Lib Dems with the hopes that no one would notice. Well they noticed, and Labour’s days are numbered.
Hopefully this fall we can take a lesson from our close friends and allies and finally give ourselves the change we so drastically deserve. Because anything other than an about-face would be just another in a long series of self-defeating decisions by the electorate of this country, these mistakes that always leave us wanting a bit more.
—
(email this article or post to social network)
—
