Over at my favorite normblog, Norm offers up a political cocktail with an irony twist. If, however, I had served Norm's cocktail in a Styrofoam cup, which Norm would never do, the not so subliminal message would have been: p*ssy sells.
My second favorite piece of political wisdom (the first is Lincoln's Gettysburg Address) is Churchill's famous dictum: 'Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.' Lincoln and Churchill were speaking about a form of government, and democratic government of the people, by the people, for the people beats the crap out of all the others, to put it less elegantly than those two of my favorite political heroes.
But elections, most especially American elections, are not a form of government. They are the quintessential form of selling. Each candidate for the Presidency will require about a 9-figure advertising budget! And all those candidates' debates are nothing more than a precisely orchestrated dog and pony shootout. If you really think anyone is ever saying anything other than what their campaign management team has determined will win, rather than lose potential votes, then I invite you to call me about some very reasonably priced beach front property in Arizona.
Ultimately, a thinking (as opposed to a shopping) American voter needs to divine what the principal (careful, NOT principled) candidates would do in a crisis. Would they act as Lincoln, Washington, Churchill, Truman, and George W. Bush had? Or do some other, lesser "leaders" come to mind? Good luck shopping for an answer to that question.
My second favorite piece of political wisdom (the first is Lincoln's Gettysburg Address) is Churchill's famous dictum: 'Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.' Lincoln and Churchill were speaking about a form of government, and democratic government of the people, by the people, for the people beats the crap out of all the others, to put it less elegantly than those two of my favorite political heroes.
But elections, most especially American elections, are not a form of government. They are the quintessential form of selling. Each candidate for the Presidency will require about a 9-figure advertising budget! And all those candidates' debates are nothing more than a precisely orchestrated dog and pony shootout. If you really think anyone is ever saying anything other than what their campaign management team has determined will win, rather than lose potential votes, then I invite you to call me about some very reasonably priced beach front property in Arizona.
Ultimately, a thinking (as opposed to a shopping) American voter needs to divine what the principal (careful, NOT principled) candidates would do in a crisis. Would they act as Lincoln, Washington, Churchill, Truman, and George W. Bush had? Or do some other, lesser "leaders" come to mind? Good luck shopping for an answer to that question.
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