The scarecrow in this instance is Sarah Palin.
The news has been dominated by the tragedy in Arizona the last few days. No surprise there. When a fruit loop kills and/or wounds twenty people it's not an insignificant event. There are people who feel Sarah Palin and her actions and rhetoric are somewhat responsible for this tragedy as well.
No one knows, at least as of yet, what drove Jared Loughner to do this. This guy is mentally unstable and what drove him to commit this heinous act could have a variety of factors involved. He may very well have been influenced by the rhetoric and actions of Sarah Palin, or not. There's enough hateful rhetoric spewed by all politicians to go around, especially over the last decade. Political and Religious rhetoric have simply gotten out of hand, and we've allowed it to happen. Politicians know this type of campaigning works, and that's what is truly shameful about the election process in this country. People buy into the rhetoric.
Sarah Palin isn't presidential material. I can easily say that despite the fact that I don't disagree with everything she spouts off about. She's very fond of telling us what is wrong in America, and there are things wrong in America today. Hell, that's easy to say. What I've never heard her utter is solutions to fixing what is wrong in America though. She's all rhetoric and sound bite.
(And, before going any further, I'm no fan of Obama either. He was simply the better choice in the last election, yet a poor choice at the same time.)
Sarah Palin is no more qualified to be a president than I am. And I'm not qualified in any way, shape, or form. But I do know there are several things I don't want in a president, as follows:
1) I don't want a president who quits when the going gets rough. Palin couldn't even finish a term as a governor, why would we expect that she could adequately do a much more demanding job? If she couldn't hack running a sparsely populated state how could she hack running a nation?
2) I don't want a reality TV star running my country. It's just simply not presidential.
3) I don't want someone who feels it was a great idea to post gun sight images on her web site(s) over congressional districts, or opposing politicians. Whether this was a factor in the tragedy in Arizona or not. Someone who aspires to be president shouldn't be this stupid and not know that this could possibly incite violence and unwanted actions. It was a childish maneuver period.
4) I want a presidential candidate with real solutions, not simply hateful rhetoric. It's easy to spout off about problems and not have any concrete solutions to problems. She's not wrong in stating that we have problems here. But everyone and anyone can do that. Someone who aspires to be president has to have solutions though.
Sadly, we haven't had a great, or even good president in quite some time. What's even sadder is that we've allowed this to happen. Apparently our expectations in the leader(s) of our country isn't too high. Personally I think we, as a country, can take some responsibility in the tragedy in Arizona. We've allowed politicians from all spectrum's to spew hateful vitriolic rhetoric. We've bought into it. Doesn't say too much about our intelligence or expectations does it?
17 comments:
Agreed! Well said.
We need to set the standards of discourse higher than it is now.
Sweet Mary, Mother of Jesus, do not even LET me get started on the ranting about the state of "politics" today. I try to stay pretty open-minded and close to the middle. One thing I can say about both the left and the right: they are BOTH pissing me off equally these days. Now THAT is some great "collaborating" on their parts. LOL
Some excellent points.
SP might make a mighty good hairdresser though...
This is a very well thought out and written post and I can't argue with any of your logic.
As a society who is so ridiculously wrapped up in being politically correct "in terms", we are a most politically incorrect society "in action."
I couldn't agree with you more. And what disgusts me to the bone is the politicos who jump into the limelight of a tragedy to promote their own agendas and blow their own horns. Palin was pretty much out of the picture completely now that her horrid show has been canceled yet she wasted not a second diving in front of a cameraman as soon as they started flocking around the dead and wounded like carrion birds. Despicable.
Somewhere back in my archives I wrote something about my "dislike" to say it mildly. of Sarah Palin. She's just obnoxious. Your post was very well written and it's so true. Politicians are all about greasing palms and getting their names out there. What we need is some asskicking but no body wants to change anything or is willing to try. Sad,sad,sad.
I don't have much to say about Palin, but I can comment on the new mayor of my fine city, Toronto. The citizens of Toronto, in their wisdom, elected a conservative mayor who has experience running a large family business, to see our city through the tough economic climate. I agree with that decision. What I do not agree with was the mayor's choice of a local celebrity to give the first speech of his era, which basically derided all liberal-thinking people as "bike-riding commie pinkos". That was both offensive and divisive. A stupid way to start a reign of power - alienate a good portion of your constituents. I'm having doubts about this mayor already.
I agree with pretty much every single thing you said.
I'm so glad that you brought up that she didn't even finish her term as governor. Yikes
Nicely said JPT. Although I know it is the backbone of our society, I am so not a fan of politics. Seems like there are so few genuine politicians out there. Sad...
Bloody politics. As a foreigner in Japan I have no rights here and as a non-resident of New Zealand I do not need to vote there. I am so out of touch with world politics but your post was very interesting.
I am not American, but I love posts like this because it allows me to see how Americans feel about the current economic crisis and the President.
This was very insightful.
I don't think politics has been about representing the people for some time. It's become a popularity contest leaving things to devolve to a painfully sophomoric state
I agree. Sarah Palin would NOT be a good President.
Didn't Sarah Palin do a show with Kate Gosselin? Enough said.
As a Canadian looking in, I must say that you make a lot of sense.
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