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Politics is in a long dry spell, too
Randy Blaser
Updated: July 25, 2012 5:41PM
It is a very dry season.
And I’m not just talking about the weather, or the fact that we’ve had little rain this summer, or that the lawns in all the suburbs are a dull brown.
I’m also talking about the narrow minds that talk politics during this presidential election season. When it comes to issues that matter, this is a very dry season.
I can’t wait for the Olympics to begin just to have some relief from the constant flow of stupid coming from politicians and their surrogates.
Sport may not be all that important, but it features people devoted to being the best, instead of people devoted to “Where’s mine?”
Can I give you some examples?
U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh says a lot of goofy stuff, but the goofiest is criticizing his opponent Tammy Duckworth as un-American because she talks about being a war veteran. His complaint: That’s all she talks about. Real heroes, he insists, don’t talk about it.
Duckworth flew a helicopter in Iraq and lost both legs when it was shot down.
I don’t know how much she talks about that on the campaign trail, but I do know that when war veterans turn politicians, they sure talk about it. From the Supreme Allied Commander of Europe to a lowly PT boat skipper. I suppose Walsh would, too, if there had been a war for him to go to when he came of age.
Moving right along ...
But let’s move on.
Another big issue in Chicago is the looming Chicago Public School teachers’ strike. I hear the commercials. Everyone is for the children.
Yet the children are dying in record numbers on the streets of Chicago. It is a national shame. There should be task forces, conferences, summits, whatever it takes, trying to figure out what to do about the murder of innocents in the streets. But there isn’t. Just more “Where’s mine?”
Nationally, I’ve heard it all. President Obama hates business and slapped every small business owner in the face with his statement that if you own a business, you didn’t build that.
I’ve been thinking about his statement a lot, trying to figure out two things: What was he trying to say and what is the point of saying it?
I’ve decided it was a just plain dumb thing to say. I think he meant we’re all in this together. That’s an idea we all agree on. We need each other. No man is an island. Blah blah blah.
But it came out as if he was saying one group — successful businesses — is taking unfair advantage of the rest of us who do the real work.
What is the point? Business bad, workers good, I guess. In other words, “Where’s mine?”
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney got rich by obtaining businesses and sucking them dry of profits by firing workers and shipping American jobs overseas.
Well, he didn’t do that by himself. Somebody had to build the global economic system that allows any job to be performed where labor is cheapest.
Jobs or cheap TVs?
That’s what has happened in this country since Reagan. We had a choice, jobs or cheap televisions? We chose cheap televisions.
Out in the heartland, it is a dry season. People are just trying to get through it with real help on housing, wages and jobs. But the stuff we’re offered this political season is just a mirage.
