No Choice At All

The choice for US voters in November 2012: ruin the Republican Party or the USA

"Lawrence Davidson views the participants in the freak show of ignoramuses and bigots contending the US Republican presidential nomination and argues that the stark choice facing American voters in next year’s presidential election is either to ruin the Republican Party or their own country.

The circus

There has been a steady drumbeat of criticism levelled against the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. As they have gone around the country holding their debates they have distinguished themselves as shallow, ignorant, hypocritical and mendacious. At these debates, the only ones who show themselves more discreditable then the candidates are those in the audience. Here is some recent criticism:
　
Marc Pitzke, writing in the German Der Spiegel Online, tells us that among the Republican primary hopefuls:

A. One thinks Africa is a country (Rick Santorum) and another thinks that the Taliban have moved into Libya (the now defunct Herman Cain).
　
B. Rick Perry falsifies President Obama’s opinions and statements with impunity while exaggerating his own achievements – claiming to have created a million new jobs while the actual number, according to Pitzke, is 100,000.
　
C. Mitt Romney, the Mormon who would lead a political party which must rely on millions of Christian fundamentalist votes, is touted as an economic expert, but Forbes Magazine describes his proposals in this area as "dangerous".
　
Newt Gingrich (who the Washington Post has called an "idea man") is, according to Pitzke, full of "lousy" ideas. One example is his public suggestion that US child labour laws be altered so that school children can clean their schools at the expense of often unionized janitors. Pitzke continues:

Gingrich claims moral authority on issues such as the “sanctity of marriage” yet he has been divorced twice. He sprang the divorce on his first wife while she was sick with cancer... He cheated on his second wife [an affair with one of his House aides] just as he was pressing ahead with Bill Clinton’s impeachment during the Monica Lewinsky affair....

Even worse will certainly come if Gingrich reaches the White House. Speaking at the Jewish Coalition Candidates Forum on 7 December 2011 Gingrich pledged to make John Bolton his secretary of state. Bolton is a vulgar warmonger – certainly one of the most dangerous of American’s neo-conservatives.

All in all, Pitzke thinks the Republican candidates "traipsing around the country" as if part of a "traveling circus" are "ruining the reputation of the United States".
　
He is not alone in that opinion. David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker Magazine, and ipso facto a representative of the US intelligentsia, has remarked that the Republican candidates collectively represent "a starting point for a chronicle of American decline". Remnick observes that:

A. Rick Perry displays an "inability to answer a simple question with a coherent reply".
　
B. Mitt Romney possesses a "spooky elasticity, his capacity to reverse himself utterly on one issue after another...."

The New Yorker editor concludes that the "spectacle of the Republican field is a reflection of the hollowness of the GOP [“Grand Old Party” – the Republican Party]itself."
　
This "hallowness" seems to be tempting others to jump into the race. Yet they are certainly no better. For instance, there are rumours that Sarah Palin might change her mind and come into the fray. And Donald Trump has repeated his determination that "if Republican primary voters can’t pick a candidate he believes will beat President Obama, he’ll run for president himself". Trump dismissed the two Republican candidates who, now and then, make sense (Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul) as "joke candidates". The media seems to agree with him, for these are the two who have gotten almost no air time either during the debates or after them. When it comes to the Republican primary, the media seems to be dancing to that old Judy Garland tune, "Be a clown ... all the world loves a clown."

For one thing voters have very little say any more in elections that really matter. It's a rigged game and "voting" machine results are completely fraudulent. Let's be honest about that. Everything that's leading up to this 2012 bullshit is manufactured, all the polls are bullshit - why should anyone believe the main event in a year won't be also?

There's no doubt the Repugs are a sorry bunch of loons but the Obama administration has been disgusting beyond belief. There's no reason to think the Democraps can dig up anybody who will be better for americans next year. Corporate and ziofascist scum rule this country, buster, and by no means will anybody rock that boat.