Unlike my hero, George Orwell, I’m not very political. I’m a conservative but not a Republican, a liberal but not a Democrat; I’ve always been an independent. This probably comes from my family who never voted in a single election, because, as my father once said, “they’re all bums and crooks”.
He would be doubly vindicated with this 2010 Midterm election. We’ve come a long way down from Thomas Jefferson’s “Obedience to conscience is obedience to God” to Christine O’Donnell’s “I’m not a witch”. But, as historian Kevin Phillips says, “We’re in the era of second-raters”. Indeed.
Here in Nevada we have a certified dummy running for the Senate on the Republican ticket. She’s actually a third-rater. She says a lot of stupid things but the one that made me mad was when she was asked how she would deal with the wars we’re fighting. She replied, “I’d follow the General’s advice”. There’s no thought or leadership in that statement. I’ve just finished Andrew Bacevich’s book “Washington Rules”. It exposes the Pentagon’s plan for perpetual war. The one we’re now fighting is called “the long war”. How does this thing end? It doesn’t!
In 1984 Orwell has Winston Smith say that the only hope is the proles, his word for the proletariat. Nevertheless the Party always wins. Who knew that the tyrant in the US was not a person but an institution such as the Pentagon.
Don’t worry; I’m not so cynical that I won’t vote on Nov. 2. I’m still a loyal citizen.
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