Smash Mouth Politics

As somewhat of a political insider I might have a little bit different perspective than the average person of the political process in general. The biggest philosophical battle that I deal with inside my own head is to not become jaded and negative to the whole thing. Now I don’t mean I’m smarter than you or better or any of that, all I mean is simply the view from the inside is much different because I know a lot of the dynamics that occur. I’ve watched with some interest as we try to select the right person to get Obama out of office there seems to be a pretty clear message coming from America that says that needs to happen. The question is who will it be? The next thing we have to ask ourselves as a country is can whoever we pick to run against an incumbent president win? Now before I start chewing us out let me say that this is still the greatest country in the world and I certainly don’t wanna’ live anywhere else I just wish we could select a candidate without slashing and burning everything in our path. Rick Perry seemed at one point to have a decent shot but the media started in on him and to hear people talk you’d think he is a blubbering idiot. I don’t think you can be Governor of a state the size of Texas as long as he has been there and be stupid. I’ve heard him speak in a fairly small meeting where we were able to ask questions and interact and I’ll tell ya’ the guy is pretty impressive and you can’t overlook the fact that the Texas economy is pretty solid. I’m still not convinced he wouldn’t make a fair president but the damage the media can do from the left pales in comparison to the damage in character assassination that we inflict from the right. I’m not sure that we on the right won’t scare off anybody of any quality. Then all of a sudden the powers that be, whoever the heck that is, decide that we need to push New Jersey Governor Chris Christie toward the nomination. I don’t know a lot about him but I kinda’ like the guy, he’s kind of a no nonsense common sense Governor, pretty plain spoken, doesn’t seem to have a lot of patience for idiots which I have to admit kinda’ appeals to me. I don’t know for sure how conservative he is or isn’t but I think even though he’s from New Jersey, he seems to be the type of person that might understand “cowboy logic.” So what do we do, we start calling him fat. I mean the guy hasn’t even said he’s running and we start picking on him because he’s a portly gent. I mean come on people the last I checked there are no super humans out there that run for these offices, these are human beings with families but we tend to wanna’ chew them up and spit em’ out, stomp em’ to death and cuss em’. Makes me wonder again, are we smart enough to pick someone who can win whose enough of a conservative to get the nomination but yet centrist enough to win the election? I mean really do we even know what we want? I can tell ya’ from experience that there’s a great deal of stress involved in this business of politics and a guy like Christie who struggles with his weight is definitely gonna’ dive into some comfort food every now and then, it’s just how it is. I’ve been there. I think what our country did to former President George W. Bush is unforgivable. Something has changed in the political process and I think we’ve lost our manners. I think we’ve come to a point in our country that it is not enough to disagree we have to inflict pain and bodily harm. It’s not enough just to kill a guy we have to dismember him as well. It’s a wonder we can get anybody to run for anything from city council on up because our country has become very mean spirited and the rules of engagement have totally changed. As a matter of fact, and I’m gonna’ go out on a limb here, I’m certainly not a fan of Obama, his healthcare mess, or his thoughts that we can tax ourselves into prosperity but I don’t think that gives me or anyone else the right to impugn the person. It seems we think we have a license to do that now.

There seems to be some interest in a new candidate by the name of Cain. He’s an African American gentleman, seems pretty conservative and may be pretty solid, might could have a shot but we’ve only begun to dismantle him. I’m sure if you look hard enough he’ll have some warts as well and I’m sure that we’ll have him beat to a pulp in short order because it seems that that’s just how we roll. But obviously that is part of the political process at least in this new environment that we find ourselves in. I guess we call it the pressure test. If we apply enough pressure and the guy can stand it maybe that’s how it should be but it just really seems like there ought to be a better way. I think maybe the smartest one in the whole game is Sarah Palin. We treated her as bad as I’ve ever seen anyone treated and I think what she’s doing is laughing all the way to the bank. She’s definitely a political force, probably no way in the world she would ever run for President and I’m not sure we deserve her. I know we must change the complexion of Washington, that’s a given I just hope that whoever survives the beating can win. It seems that we loose track of the mission from time to time and I’m not sure why anybody would want to go through that but there seems to be no shortage of folks willing to be beat to a pulp so I guess the beatings will continue until morale improves. Lord, help us.

If you would like to contact me while I am at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or send an email to donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. ~Gore Vidal