The Price Of Right
I’ll tell you a secret. One of my guilty pleasures is watching MTV’s “My Super Sweet Sixteen.”
If you have never watched the program, it’s a formula “reality show” where bratty rich girls (and occasionally a boy) are indulged by their weary parents with a sweet sixteen party of their dreams. Part of the formula is that the birthday child is “surprised” at the climax of their party with a very high-priced automobile that she actually demanded earlier in the episode.
Every show, the father tells his little princess that it’s just too costly and perhaps a less expensive car (which is still comparable to a small mortgage) would be better. Cue the tantrum and petulant behavior. “If I can’t get the Mercedes instead of the stupid Lexus,” young Brittany Amber Michelle shrieks, “then my party is off!”
I keep hearing similar outbursts from factions of Democrats who refuse to accept Obama because he is not Hillary Clinton. They threaten to not vote, to vote independent, or even to vote Republican…anything but vote for Obama.
Just to prove a point.
Actually, “send a message” is the way I heard a woman describe it on a news program.
“Clinton democrats are going to send a message.”
What’s the message? My way or no way?
I find people with arms crossed and heels dug in waiting for a fuck up, just so they can say “I told you so.” Some even hoping that if he wins the election in November that his time in office be disastrous.
That’s the part I just don’t get. No matter who is president…the one you wanted, the one you didn’t want, or the one you are ambivalent about…why would you not hope (and pray) that they do the very best job possible?
A disastrous president means disaster for our nation. I give you Exhibit A: our current Commander in Chief. I didn’t vote for him (either time), but he’s the guy who is in there (right or wrong) so I want him to be good at it. If he’s good, we’re all good.
Unfortunately, he’s not. And we’re…well, you know how it is for us.
You can hope that the Lexus breaks down so that Daddy will see that he should have gotten the Mercedes, and while it may get you some satisfaction, you also get stranded on the side of the road. And really you can’t be too sure that the Mercedes would not have broken down at some point, too. All cars do.
And so it goes with politicians.
As I have said before, I swayed back and forth between the two (Obama and Hillary) during the primaries. I wasn’t sure which side of whose fence I stood on. Both yards were filled with beds of roses as well as crabgrass.
I get why some folks were for Hillary. I get why some folks were for Obama. What I don’t get is why some folks are willing to let the election go down the toilet to prove a point.
Actually, I think I do.
Somewhere along the way in the history of this country we have become victims of the individual freedoms that we hold dear. Free thinking has given over to selfish thinking. And it carries over into how we vote.
We tend to go after the candidate who speaks specifically to the issues that effects us individually, rather than the issues that effect us a nation. We naively expect that if our individual lives improve, then the country as a whole improves. “If my life is great, then life is great.”
But, it’s really the other way around, isn’t it?
It scares me that we no longer think as a nation. We’ve got to let go of our personal shit and see the big picture. Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all, remember?
We are so fractured that we can’t seem to pull the Democratic party together, let alone the country. Which goes back to where I started. Brittany Amber Michelle can call the party off. But then, that just ruins it for everyone.
So, is it better to be right, or to do right?
August 27th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Here, here. !!
I just finished watching Sen. Hillary Clinton’s speech at the DNC. Afterwards they interviewed a woman who was brought to tears by Sen Clinton. Now I can not begin to speculate how emotionally stirring this was for her. She did convey that Sen, Clinton was being very presidential in her speech. And, how could we not see that. She also said that she was not going to vote for McCain but she wasn’t sure if she was going to vote for Obama.
Oft times, we as a people see inaction as the right thing to do. However, it isn’t in any regards the right thing to do. Inaction is simply action for someone else. And then you sit back and wonder why didn’t I? or I should of……
At some point, we just need to grow up and stop sulking on the sidelines because we didn’t get our way. We need to uncross our arms and put our bottom lips back in and embrace the fact that we didn’t get all we wanted but we got something of what we wanted and in this race, that is better than McCain.
August 27th, 2008 at 2:57 am
WOW!!!!!! I could not have said it better myself. Thanks for posting what I was thinking
August 27th, 2008 at 3:38 am
My grandpa used to say, “If you don’t vote, DON’T BITCH!”.
So every 4 years since I turned 18 I drag my butt down to exercise my right to bitch! Whether McCain or Obama is the better “man” for the job at this point is basically moot, what’s important now is to ressurect our nation’s rep and to perhaps start to repair the damage that George has done to our country as a whole..
Can either man do that? Probably not in the next 4 years, but whoever gets to be Mr. President had better start figuring on a whole lot of ass kissing to the nation in particular and the world in general!!
Because when that judge in Florida said GW was the winner, they made The United States of America the LOSER!!
I wish there was a way to actually make the office of President at least a little more like it was in the begining.
George Washington paid his own bills while in office (Presidential Salary in 1789: $25,000/year refused by Washington and the salary didn’t increase until 1873! Then it was increased to $50,000, there was another increase to $75,000 in 1909 and in 1961 it was $100,000/year + $50,000 expense account (expense account refused by JFK).
Martin Van Buren took $100,000, the sum of his salary as president over four years, in a lump sum at the end of his term. William Harrison’s widow received a $25,000 pension after her husband’s death. Five years after leaving office, John Tyler was so poor he was unable to pay a bill for $1.25 until he had sold his corn crop. Millard Fillmore refused an honorary degree from Oxford University because he felt he had “neither literary nor scientific attainment.” Grover Cleveland answered the White House phone, personally.
I would like there to be a way to take the politicians out of of politics, then maybe we could actually become the democracy we are supposed to be!!
Oh, well at least come November, I can feel proud of the fact that I can spend the next 4 years bitching!! Right, Grandpa??
Other presidential ssalary facts:
1969: $200,000/year + $50,000 expense account (Nixon)
2001: $400,000/year + $50,000 expense account (George W) Heck, HIS Daddy thought $200, 00 was good enough!
August 27th, 2008 at 4:31 am
I really like Tony’s “larger perpective” thing. Except it’s not *global* enough. You see, GW may have been sh*tty for the US, but the world is better off. Minus the Iraqis, that is. America is liable to start a war and raise general hell about, oh, every five years or so. Americans tend to forget this, because they have short attention spans. Except this latest and greatest war has run for too long, it has strained the army too much and has driven America to the brink of bankruptcy. The longer this state of affairs exists, the longer global peace will last. Minus Iraq that is. So it may be unfair to Americans, it is certainly unfair to Iraqis, but it is to the global good that this state of perpetual war continue. Like John McCain says it should. Which is what Tony asked all along, right?
PS: notice how astutely Tony highlighted Britanny Amber’s “global” conundrum. A (Japanese) Lexus or a (German) Merc?
August 27th, 2008 at 7:03 am
Well, put. Do I have your permission to repost this with attribution, of course?
August 27th, 2008 at 7:30 am
No problem, Dave. No need for attribution either. What are you gonna say? “Gay John wrote this on gay “Large” Tony’s blog”?
August 27th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Brilliant!
August 27th, 2008 at 8:08 am
i like how somebody from Facebook friends (actually a mind nearly as sexy as Tony’s) put it: “oh well, maybe Nader will ask Hilary in.”
She is clearly the smartest of the top three candidates: Obama is no intellectual slouch, but she is brighter than either he or McCain. Insightful enough to hit the “unity” theme last night. Gracious enough to keep the big picture in mind. i think a Hilary/Barack “partner Presidency” could have changed our country in a profound and ultimately positive way, but that’s politics. Hopefully i’m still young enough to see a more progressive evolution of “the system” before shuffling off this oh-so-mortal coil. Here’s hoping….
August 27th, 2008 at 9:30 am
“Profound change” … I’m skeptical of big words. “Smart” people too. There is nothing profound about keeping the global bully busy. And bleeding. As every schoolboy knows, it’s plain common sense.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:14 am
So true, Tony. In this age of disinformation, this reluctant Hillary meme is a manufactured talking point for a desperate right wing. If you supported Hillary for her policy positions and her vision of America’s future, how could you then shift to McCain or sit this election out? The idea that a thinking woman would choose this position seems to me to be a greater insult to women then Hillary recieved during her campaign from the MSM.
This portrays her supporters as women so caught up in the cult of personality (Hillary’s), that they would sabotage our nation’s future. This has the smell of Rush Limbaugh’s ” Operation Chaos ” where Republicans were urged to vote in Democratic primary states that allowed cross-over voting.(For Hillary by the way)
The women I know are far better informed and commited than this insulting talking point.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:30 am
gosh, i don’t find “profound” any less “common sense” than “skeptical”. But that’s just me….
August 27th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Oh, you know full well that we’re selfish thinkers, that’s quite obvious. The “free” in free thinking has gone by the wayside. And I concur with you 100%. Why in the world would you let our nation go to hell just to prove a point? and what point would it prove, really? I’m going to miss these writings, the depth, the soul, the insight.
August 27th, 2008 at 11:11 am
PS i love SWEET SIXTEEN too, particularly the reunion/more insight specials. i hear they are doing some kind of reality show with past birthday kids. i keep waiting for it to evolve somewhat and show a kid who chooses to have a group build of a Habitat for Humanity house or something, but not yet. Perhaps they fear that won’t draw as many “can’t take my eyes off the car wreck” viewers….