How I got here

Well here we are at my first posting on this blog. I want to make my feeble little observations about life, politics, and stuff in general.

I guess the question is how did I get to where I am about my feelings and thoughts about politics and the nature of politics. I guess my earliest memory of politics was probably the Watergate scandal. As I recall I did not know what going on or what it was about but that it was on tv all time. The next thing I guess would be Saturday Night Life which my first exposure to politically based satire humor. I remember Dan Aykroyd doing Jimmy Carter and then later on people doing Reagan.

Which brings me to Ronald Reagan the president of the 80s. Really the whole 80s considering H W Bush took the good feelings and wave of the Reagan years into the White House in 88. Anyway in 1984 I voted for the first time and it was the first and perhaps the only time I voted for Republican for president. I guess looking back he seemed like a good president and Walter Mondale did not really seem all that exciting. Up until this time I had never really know people who were political or talked politics. That changed around 1985 I was working with a group of people who were not only political but very liberal. So not that I was this uber conservative before that I wasn't really anything. There was some good things about Reagan but it seems like looking back it was the power of his personality more than anything he actually did in the White House. As Bill Maher says it was morning in America but I'm not really a morning person. I think he tried to improve the country but in the long run who did he improve the country for.

We are up to 1988 the second time I voted for president. I still was not all that political but knew more than I did in 1984. Not it was George H W Bush the vice president taking another shot at the big chair. I felt the 8 years was enough of the Reagan era. However the country did not agree and the fact the Democrats picked Michael Dukakis that year did not help. Man what were the Democrats thinking electing that guy. He may be worst nominee for either party in my lifetime. Anyway I think the rest of the country caught up with me in 1992. After 12 years of Reagan/Bush and without personality of Reagan to drive things a lot of people were ready for a change. That change came in the form of Bill Clinton.

I would say the 8 years of Clinton were mostly good, maybe after 6 years of W the Clinton years look better and better. Clinton had the same kind of dynamic personality that Reagan did.He may be full of it but least he can complete a sentence and not sound like an idiot. I voted for the man twice and would still be willing to vote for him again.He ran against two pretty bland Republicans in Bush and Bob Dole. There was some unique things about Clinton when he ran he was the first 60s era guy to run and was trying to be hip. There incidents you had not seen out a guy running for president like playing sax on Arsenio Hall, the I did not inhale silliness, and the infamous boxers or briefs question. I thought the whole impeachment thing was total crap and was more the Republicans trying to stage a bloodless coup more than any actual wrong doing by the president. I would like to see what would have happened to W of the Republicans in congress had been as concerned about W invading Iraq as Bill Clinton getting a blow job.

After 8 years of Clinton it was Al Gore's chance to run for president and was running against the son of H W Bush, George W Bush. I recall that seeming to be a pretty awful choice at the time. Al Gore just seemed like a big stiff. All you have to do is look at Al kissing Tipper on tv which may go down as the unsexiest kiss in history. I really did have anything against W at the time but he nothing he did or said really impressed me. So I voted for Gore by default. Then all the fun started and at the end of the day after all the counting ballots, hanging chads, Katherine Harris, protests, old people voting for the wrong people, and whole lot of bs we ended up with a second president Bush. I was pissed Bush won but after that I was like well its not like the president can really effect my life and for the most seemed to be true and most 0f 2001 was uneventful W was plugging along as president and the 9-11 happened after that things got weird. I think W had the good will of the country and world behind him. He could have really brought the country together and really work for change and national unity. The good will was short lived. Karl Rove the president's political guru saw this chance to dominate and divide more than a chance to unite. So we get the odious patriot act, tax cuts for the rich, torturing people, and of course Operation Iraqi Liberation. W said you either with us or with the terrorists. Little did we know it would come to mean people who dared question his idiotic policies.

Which brings us to the ill fated election of 2004 with another bad candidate from Massachusetts (Just seems to be something people from Mass not named John Kennedy running for president). The thinking at the time was anybody but Bush as turned out it was anybody but Bush well maybe not John Kerry. By the time 2004 came around I was more political than I ever been. I regularly watched the news and was reading various sites on the internet. I have to be honest I was not all that excited about John Kerry, however I would have never voted for W and I really wanted a Democrat to pick the Supreme Court Justices. Also by this point you think Kerry would be working on a way to get the hell of Iraq by now and not send more guys over to be killed. I had thought about trying to help the Kerry Campaign but in the end did not. I guess he did not impress me enough. November 5, 2004 was a very sad day for me. I did watch the returns because I had driven to Nashville to watch the band Ministry and by the time I got out of the show it was down to Ohio. I don't think it was bad as Florida but I still think something fishy went on Ohio. In both cases Katherine Harris in Florida and Ken Blackwell in Ohio were both running the Bush for president for the state and the election. Its not like W was all that popular at the point but things had not been bad enough for some people to vote for Kerry. Iraq was chugging along but many thought it had a good chance still, Katrina had not happened, enough independents approved him, and Karl Rove got people to fear the idea of a President Kerry enough to vote for Bush. One wonders if some of things like Iraq going south and Katrina happened in 2004 and not 2005 would have happened. Seems like Katrina was the tipping point so much that he was at fault for hurricane but the reaction to it pointed up flaws in his administration. Having idiots like Michael Brown at FEMA, doing photo ops while New Orleans is under water, and his seeming detachment with reality. What people were saying what we see on tv is not matching up with what W is saying. Hey if he is wrong about this maybe he is wrong about Iraq. From that point it has all been downhill and leading to the Democrats taking over both houses of congress in 2006.

For some of us 2006 was a breath fresh air. Hey guys thanks for coming to the party you guys are little late but what the hell. I think the next couple of years are going to be long ones for Bush. The Democrats are trying to get us of Iraq. Henry Waxman, John Conyers, and other leaders in the congress are looking into the whos, whys, and hows of the 6 year Bush dictatorship. We are also as a country never has there been more interest this early as to who is going to be the next president as now. In the recent debates there 8 Democrats and 10 Republicans saying they want to president. With Newt Gingrich, Fred Thompson, Chuck Hagel, and maybe Al Gore thinking about running with Fred Thompson probably the most likely of that group to jump in. In both parties you have three clear front runners with Obama, Clinton, and Edwards for the Democrats and McCain, Romney, and Giuliani for the Republicans. I think for the most part are happy with their choices and Republicans are not sure. Thus you have someone like Fred Thompson who seems to be more famous for being on Law and Order than anything he actually did in politics. Personally I have been in contact with the John Edwards campaign about doing some work for them. Which the first campaign I have ever worked on. I have also met some of the local members of Moveon.org about working with them. Lastly I went to a meeting of the local Libertarian Party. That was interesting but I am not sure what third parties can do but it is good to get another opinion and I do agree with much of what they say. I guess my problem with the Libertarians is there ideas of a much smaller government and no taxes sound great in theory but I am not sure if it is actually possible in the real world.

So here I am in 2007 wondering about 2008 and beyond. Wondering if I can change things. Wondering to small degree if it even matters. I would like to think it matters and want to work to change things.