The Poet's Eye
commentary by Lightning Rod
the Poets' Eye is skeptical
without being cynical, innocent
without being naive and
critical without being
judgmental
Fiddler
On the Roof
for release on 09-13-04
"Do you smell something burning?" .......................Skull & Bones ........................."It's us. We're smokin' tonight."
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First we had the Swift Boat nonsense and now the controversy over the Bush National Guard documents.
The Poet's Eye can't see how 35 year old service records matter in the question of who's vision of this country's future is the best one. Perhaps the debate is centered on purple hearts and what typewriters were capable of in 1972 because neither of the major parties have any solutions to the very real problems facing our country.
It's a national disgrace how this presidential race is progressing. Instead of the debate being centered on the issues that are critical to our lives, like why a third of our population is without proper health insurance, why nearly two million jobs have fled in the past four years, why 1,000 of our soldiers and 30,000 Iraqis have been killed and we have squandered a half a trillion dollars pursuing a war with no objective but private profit, the two major parties are prattling on about who's thirty year-five year old service (or avoidance of service) records are more authentic. It's insane.
It's an indication of how completely public relations and advertising have subsumed our political process. It could be argued that John F. Kennedy won the 1960 presidential election on the strength of #4 pancake make-up. He looked cooler and tanner during the debates.
Madison Avenue has long been noted for its ability to make us buy products that we don't need, based on slogans and catch-words and spurious claims. You think you need products that are 'natural' or 'organic' or 'high in calcium' or 'low in carbs.' Now you think you need a president who possesses 'integrity.' That's what both the Swiftboat hoopla and the National Guard document flap are about, integrity. In portraying themselves as macho warriors, were Bush and Kerry telling the truth? Who cares? History shows us that honesty and veracity are not things that we generally require from our politicians.
Some of our best presidents have been huge scoundrels. FDR and Kennedy and Eisenhower and Clinton all cheated on their wives. Even Jimmy Carter did it in his mind according to his Playboy interview.
Give me a leader who cheats on his taxes and lies on his resume. What good is a chief who is incapable of guile?
When the debates commence, are these two idiots going to be fighting about what they may or may not have done thirty-five years ago? Or are they going to talk about the issues that matter to our lives today? Are they going to invoke the chimera of terror, or are they going to talk about the real problems, like why it pains you to go past the gas pump or why you have to sit in the emergency room for six hours to see a doctor? Are they going to bicker over whose heart is purpler or whether the superscripted 'th' was available on typewriters in 1972, or are they going to speak to the issue of why the drug companies are raping our seniors and trying to sell hard-on drugs while millions are dying from AIDS?
I'm not going to vote in this election. My franchise has been stripped by the hypocritical drug laws. But even if I could vote I wouldn't, because a vote for either of the major candidates is a vote for the same corporate interests. You can't raise the 200 million bucks that it takes to run for president these days without being someone's lapdog. So it's a vote for the poodle or the terrier. Since there is not ten cents worth of difference between the positions of the two candidates on the major issues, they have to fight with slogans and postures and issues like who deserved the purple heart thirty-five years ago and whether the 1972 version of the IBM Selectric typewriter made superscripts.
Rome burns, and still they fiddle.
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