PolitiPorn™

Note to Hillary: that enormous package with the bow on it is your ass and Barack Obama just handed it to you.  The CheeseHeads of Wisconsin gave Obama an overwhelming victory over the Clinton Machine.  If you look at the vote tallies you’ll find that not only did he trounce the former 1st Lady, but he also received more votes, now wait for it, than ALL of the GOP’s candidates COMBINED!  Here. The GOP National Committee has already drawn a red ”X” over the map of Wisconsin.  No need for them to go there this November.  Talk about turd in the punchbowl.

Why is Obama winning so handedly?  I think it’s simple.  Clinton & McCain offer the premise that Obama is merely inspirational rhetoric.  No more than political Tony Robbins.  Their folks will tell you that Obama is in fact a very good motivational speaker, but doesn’t offer real solutions.  Quite frankly, this writer believes that “motivation” is the solution to many of our current problems.  For too long now we’ve been told how some politician was going to solve all our problems and in return we didn’t have to do damn thing but vote them.

Look at the current situation we are in with the War on Terror.  Have we as Americans been asked to sacrifice anything?  I mean other than giving up a couple civil liberties?  The answer is “No.”  Before I continue, I must disclaim.  I appreciate and honor the sacrifice that our military families have during the War on Terror, but they shouldn’t be shouldering this burden alone.  It’s time that the rest of America to step up to the plate.

People love to look into the rear-view mirror of history and point to the WWII era and call our grandparents “The Greatest Generation Ever.”  It is a just and apt description no doubt.  But why should they receive this moniker?  It can be summed up in one word, “Sacrifice.”  For all the good that FDR did back then, perhaps his greatest achievement could be that he “motivated” a nation to “sacrifice” for the greater good.  How did he do it you ask?  With rhetoric.  Those fireside chats weren’t just about Franklin wanting to spout off about the war or whatever.  It had nothing to do with President Roosevelt being enamored with the sound of his own voice.  The reason he did it was to lift the spirits of the American people and make them feel engaged in the struggle.  Do you feel engaged?  My guess is that you don’t, unless of course you find your crouch being grabbed by airport security. I’ll save that experience for another article.

If you don’t believe me, consider this, do you think today’s American’s would wait in long food lines with ration stamps to buy their groceries?  Do you think that American’s would turn off their lights or TV at night if an Civil Air Patrol Marshall told them to?  In both instances the answer is, and I quote Whitney Houston here, “oh hell to the NO!” 

Before FDR’s rhetoric and Pearl Harbor, we were country that didn’t really give a damn about what went on in the rest of world.  We didn’t get into WWI until the bitter end and many Americans thought it best to sit out WWII.  Nonetheless, Pearl Harbor and FDR’s words galvanized a nation.  The rest of course is history.

Contrast that with our current situation.  9/11 brought Americans and world together not unlike Pearl Harbor.  Bush’s rhetoric in the days in that followed motivated even this liberal to want to do something, anything.  However, he never asked me or anyone else to do anything or to sacrifice anything.  Instead, it was tax cuts.  Now that’s a sacrifice.  That engages me.

This country needs an enema.  Plain and simple.  Obama promises young folks that he’ll see that they get help with tuition for college.  In return he asks that they spend their free summers volunteering.  Please tell me your kidding?  You mean my country wants something in return?  I thought, with the exception of taxes, that citizenship was free?  Sorry, in life there are no free lunches and citizenship shouldn’t be free either.

As the Democratic primaries drag on, ask yourself this question, “which candidate motivates me to be an engaged and better citizen of my country?”  Despite her list of accomplishments and all of that experience, Senator Clinton doesn’t excite, motivate or challenge us.  Instead, she insists that she, by herself mind you, will change things.  Only she has the experience and expertise to do the job.  In other words, she only needs your vote but she doesn’t need YOU!  Let’s get this straight, she doesn’t want your input and she doesn’t want your help.  All she wants is your vote.  Where’s the sacrifice?  That at ain’t work, but that’s the she’ll do it, money for nothing and chicks for free.  Do I hear Hawaiian noises?

John McCain is no different.  It’s not lip service when I say that I admire the man and his sacrifice to our great country.  However, Senator McCain doesn’t need you either.  He has all the answers and only he knows how to protect you in these troubling times.  Don’t worry, sit back relax and let Johnny on the Spot fight the evil-doers with his +5 terrorist slaying sword.  Oh, and I’ll make those burdensome tax cuts permanent.  So then McCain is telling us, don’t worry be happy.

Nope, Obama calls upon the American people in a vain similar to JFK when Kennedy said “ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  McCain and Clinton have a different spin on this mantra which goes something like “ask ME what your country can do for you and I’ll see if my pollsters agree and then it’s yours my friend.”  Too many of us have exchanged living in the “the land of the free and the home of the brave” to living in the “the home and land for FREE!”  Obama’s message rings with the corny platitude of this land is your land, but you’ll have to pitch in to keep that way and yes you can.