One of the hazards about finding out details about people is that sometimes I find much occasion to revise my opinion. No, not The Donald: I always thought he was an unsufferable bully and blowhard with the tact of a Tasmanian devil. Likewise for Hillary. She has the credibility of Brian Williams.
I recently read about the young Bernie Sanders. Apparently, when he went off to Vermont in the 1960's to find his simple life** and be a revolutionary, he was just a guy who would have utterly turn me off with pat answers and overheated rhetoric had I been around back then. I suppose some people could blame it on youthful indiscretion: but he was older then than I am now. Still, he seems to be making sense.
But maybe I'm being totally with a stick up you-know-where. After all, people can change, and sometimes for the better. (Being a Senator is always an iffy sign that someone has changed for the better.) Anyway, it's the all-American way of politics: to dig up dirt about candidates you're opposed to that might embarrass them a bit. Yes, term papers that they wrote, pictures of them in poor choices of swimsuits, indiscreet utterances, having tried weed but not inhaling.
That was Bernie a long time ago. Time does soften things a mite. So does a simple "I changed my mind." But there is no excuse for the conduct in the exchange between Marco Rubio and Donald Trump last Thursday night. The country was forced to contemplate Mr. Trump's penis! What next? Flaunting it on nationwide television? America clicks the "off" button. My guess is that practically all people have some embarrassing items in their history that they would not want to be disclosed; but that was right now and can't be dismissed as old time showboating! Both have dropped to the lowest denominator.
Maybe we should take a page from Minnesotans, who several years ago elected a former wrestler nicknamed Jesse "The Body" Ventura their Governor! Also, some citizens in Tennessee elected a former Hooters girl to the state legislature; and Louisiana elected Edwin Edwards Governor after he assessed his chances of being elected Governor "The only way I can lose this election is if I'm caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
He won. And his immortal quote was resurrected from time to time in editorial cartoons. However, in the time before that election, he was running against David Duke. That prompted this immortal bumper sticker:
Maybe the electoral amnesia or statute of limitations should apply to Presidential politics nowadays. Otherwise, we're going to have a hard time looking for a few good candidates. But give them a reasonable period before it applies; we don't want carte blanche for getting away with present-day idiocies. After all, Edwin Edwards was elected against his rival, David Duke; opposing a Klan leader should count for something!
*Pronounced "koo-yawn."
**Like Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie found in Arkansas.
It's nice to learn a new word about politicians.
ReplyDeleteI think that politicians that have changed their mind on a topic should just say so. If they admit that they can be educated on a topic and that reasonable argument can influence their thought process--well, I'd say that is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI would hate to think that I might be judges on the beliefs of a twenty-something version of me. I hope that I have grown far beyond that arrogant young man.
By the time you grow old and know everything it's too late.
ReplyDeleteMike is right. Now that we are older and can try to make a difference, we don't have much to chose from, and our government is a mess. The idiocy comes from (in my opinion) that when the people have voted largely in favor of one individual, the powers that be want to have it their way instead. Revolting politics.
ReplyDeleteYou mean it isn't true that once a couyon,, always a couyon?
ReplyDeleteJohn and Mike are both right on target. One never stops learning (well, unless one is completely and utterly conservative), and a person who is unwilling to change his or her opinion on an issue on the basis of new, better information is pretty stupid. And I'm adding "couyon" to my vocabulary!
ReplyDeleteOne of my mottos is "Never let a lack of facts get in the way of an opinion". Many people seem to follow this, but they miss out on the next: "Find facts and modify your opinion as you get them!"
ReplyDelete