A Shy Man's Tale. Viewpoints: 8. H. Politics
A Shy Man's Tale. Viewpoints: 8. H. Politics
“Any 20 year-old who isn't a liberal doesn't have a heart, and any 40 year-old who isn't a conservative doesn't have a brain.” - Winston Churchill
"Politics, n: [Poly "many" + tics "blood-sucking parasites"]" - Larry Hardiman
I guess I was a young example of Winston Churchill's ideas. When an undergraduate and taking political science, the teacher took a survey of each student's ideals and voting records and positions. His comment about me was that I had ideals just to the left of Lenin and a voting record just to the right of Hitler. (However, he was definitely an extremely liberal Democrat.) So what am I? Actually his comments were fairly on target,. I believe that you COULD do a lot of good things for people, but unless you can figure out a way to PAY for them without wrecking the economy and everything else, you SHOULDN'T do them. In other words I'm liberal in ideals, but fiscally conservative. Am I a Democrat or a Republican? Actually I'm an independent, even though I'm registered as a Republican. My wife Valerie is registered as a Democrat. (She isn't really a Democrat either, but another independent.) By registering this way, which we started when we were in Michigan we got at least one vote in each primary. We often don't vote FOR someone, but make a vote AGAINST someone. Believe me, in each election there will be at least one idiot who should be voted against. Am I cynical about politics? Yes, and I have been ever since the truth came out about the Tonkin Gulf incident in Vietnam (I was in junior high school at the time). Voting is a right that should be taken seriously. If you don't vote, don't complain about who ever ends up in office.
The one thing I can say about Louisiana politics, is that it often extremely entertaining. One of the Governor's races ended up producing one of my favorite political bumper stickers of all time: "Save Louisiana, Elect the Crook!" That bumper sticker was a result of the Edwin Edwards vs. David Duke election (Duke was a former KKK grand dragon). As the joke goes, a northerner is talking to a Louisiana gentlemen,who is puffing away on his cigar, deploring how easy it is to buy a Louisiana politician. The Louisiana gentleman removes the cigar from his mouth and replies, "Suh, I resent the implication that you can buy a Louisiana politician. You can't buy a Louisiana politician, you have to rent them by the hour!!" Fortunately things are improving and the culture of corruption is slowly being replaced. We've been fortunate in our city over the past ten years having fiscally prudent and wise city councils and mayors. That is one of the reasons that the city has shown sustained growth. In the twenty years I've been here, the city has changed a tremendous amount, mainly for the better. We also in 2008 have great hopes for the new governor, and hope that his pushes for ethical reform take hold.
The quote I'll finish with is one from Ronald Reagan (not one of my favorite politicians, actually):
"Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." - Ronald Reagan
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