It's March 6, 2012: SUPER TUESDAY, as it's known in political circles. Republican presidential candidates are finding new, more effective ways to wallow deeper in the mud that they themselves have created, tearing each other down while occasionally redirecting some of their venom for each other onto the incumbant Democrat president they hope to unseat so the cycle can begin again.
Politics ain't pretty, and it seems the worse they get, the more people watch.
I still don't have a clue what the candidates stand for, but it's clear that each of them want us to believe that their opponents are less than the salt of the earth.
Too rich. Not religious enough. Too conciliatory. Not patriotic enough. Too willing to compromise with the other side. Not well-enough armed. Too soft on terrorism. Not respectful of traditional values. Too ... too ... too not me!
I'm being much kinder than I intended. Personally, I've never seen a worse slate of candidates for the highest office in the land. The politics of rage, expressed by wealthy white men who have very little reason to be so personally upset. Party politics is the new fundamentalist religion; the party is paramount, slightly below God -- their definition of God, of course -- and more important than country, collaboration, compromise, and the greater good for the greatest number.
The world is made up of conservatives and liberals, and all who fall in between those labels. The nation is made up of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, and all who fall in between those labels. And guess what: no one, no side, is the keeper of all knowledge and wisdom. It takes all of us to make up a society, and my own definition of hell would be a place where everyone agreed with me, all of the time, all of the way. Differences are what make us human. Differences are what make us special. Differences are what make us learn and grow.
What's missing in this current climate is the expression of ideas -- the exchange of possibilities and opportunities. Rather than hearing a candidate criticize another candidate -- and doing so with fervor -- I would rather hear each candidate share their ideas and never say anything about their opponents. Forget about telling us what you think about the other candidates; tell us what you think, what you feel, what you'll do. Give us your ideas, hope, and encouragement -- and challenge us, the voters, to do our part. Run FOR SOMETHING rather than AGAINST SOMEONE. Bring back dignity, integrity, and responsibility to the political process. Don't worry about the other guy or gal; tell us your dreams.
In the spirt of this, the seemingly longest campaign season ever, I wrote this song, "Only A Game," using an old melody I had lying around.
http://www.bandizmo.com/user/player.php?page=songs&member=2819&nr=2
"Only A Game"
c. 2012
Randy Lynn Mitchell
I turned on my TV to watch the debate
I wanted to know what they thought
Why he or she would be the best candidate
And not why the other guy was not
I foolishly felt that ideas should win
Not slander and libel and fear
But blaming each other's original sin
Became the only thing that I could hear
And it's only a game to be won
It's only a race to be run
The strong will survive, that's the way that it's done
And it's only a game to be won
They call it a party; it's more like a mob
Where everyone dresses the same
And nothing else matters but getting the job
Do anything it takes to win the game
And it's only a game to be won
It's only a race to be run
The strong will survive, that's the way that it's done
And it's only a game to be won
Another election, another campaign
To show us how low we can go
We'll crawl to the polls and we'll vote once again
For strangers we don't really know
And it's only a game to be won
It's only a race to be run
The wrong will survive, that's the way that it's done
And it's only a game to be won
As Mac McAnally once wrote, "Some kinds of parties are lots of fun, but right now I can't think of one..." Someone else said that to win the rat-race, you have to be a rat. Maybe that's the problem... I don't have the answer. In the meantime, I'll just keep watching for Jackson Browne's "Everyman."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgXzWhexJh0
