By Donald Kaul
I’m trying to remember the names of all the people running for the Republican nomination for president. Let’s see…there’s Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Tommy Thompson, Ronny Paul, Huckabee Brownback, Donner, Blitzen, Grumpy, Happy, Larry, Curly and Mo.
There! Did I miss any? It’s hard keeping track of them. When they line up on stage for one of those hilarious televised debates, they look like cardboard cutouts.
But once they begin talking…it doesn’t change much. Oh, they disagree--some--mainly over who is more conservative, who loves God more and who is most like Ronald Reagan.
Outside of that, they’re mostly on the same page. They’re pretty much against illegal immigrants, for lower taxes, against abortion, for continuing the war in Iraq, against gay marriage, dubious about stem cell research and, as I mentioned previously, much in favor of God.
There are differences in degree, of course. A fellow named Tom Tancredo (apparently someone who wanders into these things off the street under the impression that anyone really can run for president) is nutso on the subject of immigration (he wants to buy the Great Wall of China and move it to the Tex-Mex border) and John McCain, who seems to love the war as much as the Holy Roller candidates love God. But, for the most part, it is a relentlessly moderate group of reactionaries, as unlikely to produce an original thought as it is to give offense to a Baptist Sunday school class.
With the single exception, perhaps, of Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, who made the brave decision to blurt out the truth in the second debate. He had the temerity to suggest that the 9/11 attacks were in retaliation for our previous bombing and occupation of the Middle East. Challenged on it, he said:
“They don’t come here to attack us because we’re rich and we’re free. They come and they attack us because we’re over there.”
Well, they all jumped on him for that, particularly Rudy Giuliani (whose only real qualification for office is a terrific sneer and having been mayor of New York City when the attacks occurred). The fact that Paul’s explanation is absolutely correct made little difference. Giuliani won the day. There are few things more unpatriotic in wartime than telling the truth. More typical of the “debates” was this exchange from the first one:
Q.---Gov. Romney, what do you dislike most about America?
Gov. Romney--Gosh. I love America. I’m afraid I’m going to be at a loss for words because America for me is not just our rolling mountains and hills and streams and great cities. It’s the American people. And the American people are the greatest people in the world…It’s that optimism we thank Ronald Reagan for…that optimism about this great people that makes this the greatest nation on earth.’’
Gee, I think he likes us, he really likes us.
Of all the blather produced by our political system, the most blathersome is the claim that we are the greatest country in the world. By what standard? We jail a higher percentage of our population than any other country and stand fourth in number of executions (behind those other bulwarks of liberty, China, Iran and Saudi Arabia); in the number of eligible voters who actually vote, we are 139th among 172 countries. Thirty-three countries (including Cuba) have a lower infant mortality rate and 28 a lower maternal death rate. Our public schools are widely thought to be inferior to those of Europe and Asia and “American Idol” is the number one television show. Donald Trump is a national hero.
If that makes us the greatest country in the world, what’s the second greatest, Bulgaria?
At the debate the candidates were asked who among them didn’t believe in evolution. Three of them raised their hands. And they were wearing shoes! Yet no one laughed. Not even so much as a snicker.
Maybe Bulgaria is the second greatest country. And gaining.
Don Kaul is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-losing Washington correspondent who, by his own account, is right more than he's wrong. Email: dkaul1@verizon.net.
minutemanmedia.org
