Nobody for President

Lately I’ve heard some people say, “Hey, maybe this Barack Obama guy is just what the country needs; someone really different.”

The thing is, Mr. Barack is not really different. He’s an orthodox Democrat. More importantly, he’s a Republicrat: he represents the same two-party system that’s gotten the country into its present mess.

Let’s review how this works: the Republicans and Democrats are not two ideologically distinct parties. They are two wings of a single mega-party, the Republicrats, that has monopolized the federal government for many years. They exaggerate small differences between them, but agree on much more important things — like big government.

Worse, they monopolize public attention. If someone comes along with a really good idea for political change (and there are such ideas) you never hear about it.

These two wings take turns looking bad, setting up the other wing up to assume office next. It’s quite a racket, works remarkably well, and has the public fooled. People now dutifully hate George W., unaware that they’ve been set up: they’ll now indignantly vote Democrat, thinking they’ve accomplished something, while the corporate contributors who back both parties sit in their wingback chairs smirking.

Whether you hate George W. Bush, or hated Bill Clinton 8 years ago, it amounts to the same thing. You’ve been manipulated to vote more Republicrats into office. All your anger and indignation are self-defeating. Meanwhile, attention is taken off the real issues.

In any case, Americans need to stop looking to a figurehead president to solve problems for us. That’s childish. It turns what should a civil servant into a parent figure.

No president is going to renew America. It has to come from you and me. Looking to a president for this is a false hope and an abrogation of personal responsibility.

Hence the motto: Nobody for president!

We don’t need any more big-ego media figurehead presidents. As long as we elect media presidents, all we’ll have to choose from are demagogues: people who make it their business to present empty and unrealistic promises. Let’s do a quick reality check (in alphabetical order):

• Hilary Clinton - demagogue and professional politician

• John McCain - demagogue and professional politician

• Barack Obama - demagogue and professional politician

• Mitt Romney - demagogue and professional politician

That pretty well summarizes things.

We need to wean ourselves from this whole model of thinking that a president can renew or reform American society. We need a president to say, “Basically, America, I can’t solve your problems. You have to solve them yourselves. But I promise to stay out of the way as much as possible; I’ll see to getting the garbage collected and the mail delivered.”

For what it’s worth, that’s exactly the philosophy of the Libertarian party candidate.

What’s his name?

I don’t even know.

That’s the point.