Ok, I was totally and completely wrong
Way back in the 1990s, I had a very poor opinion of the potential future of the United States. I remember a midterm project for 9th grade World History where we had to debate whether or not the U.S.A. was declining in a manner parallel to the Roman Empire. I ended up as the leader for the side that I thought was much weaker: arguing against the idea that the U.S. was in decline. Later on seeing deficits looming as far as could be seen, and knowing that crime statistics and other barometers of societal decline had been indicating decline for a while, it seemed more and more obvious that the decline of our republic was likely. When I started in Berkeley, I jokingly said I was supporting Dan Quayle for President in the year 2000 for the reason of "if we're going to go to hell in a hand-basket, we might as well go out laughing." Dan Quayle was a lot of fun to have available for the inevitable news story of for an amusing quote. However, I was mostly joking when I suggested we should elect him for humor value alone.
My reasoning derived from my view of the infamous hot coffee case involving McDonalds from the early 1990s. A lady buys coffee, scalds herself in her nether-regions and sues McDonalds over it. She wins a big settlement. I don't wish to argue the merits of the case, indeed, I don't think they matter in this case. I will gladly pay a few pennies extra for fast food as a small tax for the humor of the incident. The small pass on of costs to the consumer in this case I think is reasonable and a deal well worth it. I had theorized that the same thing could apply to presidential politics much in the same way that I enjoyed having Bob Dornan in the House of Representatives to keep C-SPAN amusing.
However as the 1990s progressed it started to become clear to me that the problems we were facing actually were starting to abate. The deficits were shrinking (and would soon disappear), crime was down, and I realized that no decline is inevitable as long as we make wise choices. So in 2000 I worked as much as I could manage to try to help Al Gore be elected President... I can write megabytes about what the result of that election was, but the bottom line is that Al Gore did not become the President. George W Bush did become President. Arguably George W Bush is every bit as amusing if not more so than Dan Quayle ever was. My previous post is something he said today. I appreciate the chuckle I get from it, and the slew of other misstatements (that he may or may not have made), yet my entire theory that the laughter is worth the price of sub-par leadership is now exposed as one of the most ludicrously idiotic in history.
No amount of humor makes up for the disaster of having Bush as the President. I could have the surviving members of Monty Python show up on my doorstep and perform exclusively for myself for 4 years, and it still would not make up for it. (though if any of them are reading this for some bizarre reason, I wouldn't exactly mind the visit) If boring is the price of responsible leadership, then bring on boredom. If living in a world without a man who knows how hard it is to put food on their family (a quote of his from 2000) can bring sanity to our foreign and domestic policies, then please, sign me up now. I know with the correct leadership coupled with the incredible ability of our people to overcome adversity, we can once again overcome the problems we face today. However, poor leadership with good people hasn't helped too much in the last 4 years. We need regime change!
(for the record, I actually do like John Kerry, but he doesn't stand out for hilarious quotes and he's also not to the level of boring that Al Gore had reached during the 2000 campaign so it's not much of a contrast)
What is the point? I love the quotes, but please, I want them over with. I was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong when I wanted Quayle for President in 2000! I fully admit it.
(BTW: if I can find an old humor article I wrote about Dan Quayle being angry he didn't run in 2000, I will post it)
Further note (added later): I tried my best to phrase this carefully, but to remove any and all ambiguity: I am NOT calling for the removal or elimination of George W Bush as a person. I just want him lawfully and justly removed as President. I do this fully realizing I will not get these great quotes as often if at all.
My reasoning derived from my view of the infamous hot coffee case involving McDonalds from the early 1990s. A lady buys coffee, scalds herself in her nether-regions and sues McDonalds over it. She wins a big settlement. I don't wish to argue the merits of the case, indeed, I don't think they matter in this case. I will gladly pay a few pennies extra for fast food as a small tax for the humor of the incident. The small pass on of costs to the consumer in this case I think is reasonable and a deal well worth it. I had theorized that the same thing could apply to presidential politics much in the same way that I enjoyed having Bob Dornan in the House of Representatives to keep C-SPAN amusing.
However as the 1990s progressed it started to become clear to me that the problems we were facing actually were starting to abate. The deficits were shrinking (and would soon disappear), crime was down, and I realized that no decline is inevitable as long as we make wise choices. So in 2000 I worked as much as I could manage to try to help Al Gore be elected President... I can write megabytes about what the result of that election was, but the bottom line is that Al Gore did not become the President. George W Bush did become President. Arguably George W Bush is every bit as amusing if not more so than Dan Quayle ever was. My previous post is something he said today. I appreciate the chuckle I get from it, and the slew of other misstatements (that he may or may not have made), yet my entire theory that the laughter is worth the price of sub-par leadership is now exposed as one of the most ludicrously idiotic in history.
No amount of humor makes up for the disaster of having Bush as the President. I could have the surviving members of Monty Python show up on my doorstep and perform exclusively for myself for 4 years, and it still would not make up for it. (though if any of them are reading this for some bizarre reason, I wouldn't exactly mind the visit) If boring is the price of responsible leadership, then bring on boredom. If living in a world without a man who knows how hard it is to put food on their family (a quote of his from 2000) can bring sanity to our foreign and domestic policies, then please, sign me up now. I know with the correct leadership coupled with the incredible ability of our people to overcome adversity, we can once again overcome the problems we face today. However, poor leadership with good people hasn't helped too much in the last 4 years. We need regime change!
(for the record, I actually do like John Kerry, but he doesn't stand out for hilarious quotes and he's also not to the level of boring that Al Gore had reached during the 2000 campaign so it's not much of a contrast)
What is the point? I love the quotes, but please, I want them over with. I was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong when I wanted Quayle for President in 2000! I fully admit it.
(BTW: if I can find an old humor article I wrote about Dan Quayle being angry he didn't run in 2000, I will post it)
Further note (added later): I tried my best to phrase this carefully, but to remove any and all ambiguity: I am NOT calling for the removal or elimination of George W Bush as a person. I just want him lawfully and justly removed as President. I do this fully realizing I will not get these great quotes as often if at all.
posted by Jim Casaburi at
9:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home