Warning: Politics

Note: I am generally not one to place my political views in the public forum, but this was simply too much fodder to pass up.

I registered Republican as an idealistic 18-year-old boy primarily because my father was (and still is) Republican and it fit well with my values at the time. As the years have worn on and I have taught in several different areas, I have become steadily more liberal in my leanings. Honestly, if I had to pick, I am basically a Democratic at this point - but only because their brand of moral bankruptcy is slightly less noxious. When push comes to shove, there really isn't a political party that best exemplifies me, save for supporting the candidate that has the most thought-through plan and appears to have the chutzpah to carry it out. Currently, my hopes are on this guy - but who knows what the coming months will tell.

That being said, I think our current president is a bit of a dud. He seems affable enough - his people skills and glad-handing abilities are well in the realm of someone in his position. Having been the geek that I was in high school, I recognize him for what he is: the popular kid who was the captain of the football team (or basketball, or baseball - the sport really doesn't matter) and was revered for no real quantifiable reason. He was just... likable.

But his eyes bespeak the righteous, zealot-like, dreams of manifest destiny that live therein. He basically appears to disregard common sense and forge a path that is as inscrutable as it is damaging. Perhaps he is a savant, and all his current destructive behavior will reap long-term benefit for America... but my gut tells me differently. This whole Scooter Libby business tells me differently as well... it just doesn't make sense.

So far as reactions go, Hunter S. Thompson's thoughts on Ford's pardon of Nixon are quite accurate to how I feel about that whole thing:

“Well... this is going to be difficult. That sold-out knucklehead refugee from a 1969 ‘Mister Clean’ TV commercial has just done what only the most cynical and paranoid kind of malcontent ever connected with national politics would have dared to predict...

“If I followed my better instincts right now, I would put this typewriter in the Volvo and drive to the home of the nearest politician -- any politician -- and hurl the g****** machine through his front window ... flush the bugger out with an act of lunatic violence then soak him down with mace and run him naked down Main Street in Aspen with a bell around his neck and black lumps all over his body from the jolts of a high powered “Ball Buster” cattle prod.

“But old age has either mellowed me or broken my spirit to the point where I will probably not do that -- at least not today, because that blundering dupe in the White House has just plunged me into a deep and vicious hole.”

Thanks to this article for putting me on to that gem.

Goodnight, dear reader(s)... let's hope this is the last time I feel like talking politics on here, it makes me feel dirty. Think I'll go take a shower.