What’s it to be this month? Rip Bush again? Complain about Congress? All of the above?

Lets examine OURSELVES for a change.

Nearly two years before the next election, we were forced to view two “debates,” one Democratic, one Republican. I now know even less about the multitude of candidates than I did before. The one thing I DO know is that the respective national committees must think we are either stupid or not watching all that closely. Wonder where they could have gotten THAT idea?

The Democratic slate of candidates looks more like a cross section of outer space than America. We all pretty much know who the candidate will be, and primary voting will have next to nothing to do with the selection. Two years ago the DNC decided that a slate of Fred Gwynne and John Ritter would fare better than Howard Dean. How wrong they were. I have viewed Dean’s “scream” countless times in the past two years, and still fail to see what the damn problem was.

This cycle, the Dems have decided that an African-American and a Woman might fit the bill. How wrong they are once more. As far as Obama goes, I PERSONALLY feel that he would be the best choice for president, but would make a terrible candidate. Polls show that the vast majority of Americans feel comfortable voting for a Black for president.

Bullshit.

They simply feel uncomfortable admitting their discomfort to pollsters.

As for Hillary, she simply doesn’t have it behind the podium. There is a quality to her delivery that seems to reek of insincerity. She is obviously trying to make the same sort of personal contact with her audience that Bill did, but is coming up short. I have yet to hear her advocate a national system of health care that would insure that no American citizen spends a single sleepless night worrying about how he or she is going to pay their medical bills. Until she does so, I’m not paying all that much attention to her.

We are no more ready for a female president than we are for a Black. Personally, I don’t give a fat rat’s ass whether our next president is from Mars, as long as he/she/it is a Democrat. The past six or so years have practically destroyed our national pride, as well as set us on a course pretty much parallel to that of Rome under Constantine. I can’t guarantee that a Democrat will be able to right the ship, but I do know that things can’t get all that much worse.

On the Republican side, the theater is even more absurd. They held their “debate” (these so-called debates are little more than press conferences than actual debates, hence all the quotation marks) in the Saint Ronald Reagan Library, with Nancy in the front row. To a man (they’ve got this gender-pragmatism thing down much better than the Dems) they missed no opportunity to invoke the holy name of our sainted ex-president, and thereby assure us that they, the Republican slate, would carry on the Reagan legacy of tax cuts, deficit spending, recessions, massive military spending, shafting the middle class, and lying. Which is pretty much what Bush has been, and IS doing as I type. Bush’s numbers are (as of yesterday) in the high twenties, so let’s call ourselves Reagan and try to forget “W” ever existed. As far as the latter goes, I am in full agreement.

Almost two years to go, and there is no practical way to rid ourselves of this pestilence we have visited upon ourselves. Make no mistake, WE created this horror. Our collective inattention to political discourse, our ignorance of the very system we claim to revere, our collective need to divert ourselves from reality via larger and sharper television screens, our failure to hold those who govern us accountable for their criminal conduct has led us to this sorry state of affairs.

I can forgive the truly ignorant, the borderline psychotics (this frightening response to my last column a prime example of the latter: DOWN WITH ULTRA LIBERAL WAR MONGERS CALLED DEMOCRATS!). I CANNOT forgive the vast majority of middle-class Americans who on a daily basis accept the behavior of the criminal pigs who currently hold office. Our constitution offers remedies for gross misconduct in office. I suggest once more that we look into these remedies. I have written and phoned my representatives and let them know how I feel. I urge all of like mind to do the same.

I don’t feel like waiting a year and a half for things to improve. Why SHOULD I?

Once more, thank you for your indulgence, and I welcome any and all reasoned responses.