Not By A Long Shot

Whenever I hear someone say that they’re not interested in politics and don’t vote, because both parties are virtually the same and voting doesn’t make any difference anyway, I just have to speak up.

The parties are not the same. Not by a long shot. The Democrats and the Republicans represent two starkly different views of human nature and, as a consequence, how society should be structured.

Democrats believe:

1. Human nature is basically good.
2. Human beings can and should aspire to a peaceful, mutually-supportive society.
3. Relations with other societies should be based upon the belief that the large mass of humankind wishes to live in peace and security, and that areas of conflict should be thoroughly understood and addressed reasonably.

Republicans believe:

1. Human beings are basically perverse.
2. Human beings can’t be relied upon to do the right thing, and have to be closely controlled with laws and restrictive social policies.
3. Individuals are basically on their own. You’re responsible for your own actions, but not for anyone else.
4. Other societies act solely out of a concern for their own self-interest, which immediately puts them in conflict with our own. Therefore, any sign of conflict must elicit an immediate and overwhelming negative response. Let the academics worry about the issues later on.

Every election is an opportunity to make a choice in what is an ongoing cultural conflict.

I am clearly a Democrat by conviction.

I believe people are basically good, and that we can fashion a society that houses the homeless, that feeds the hungry, that tends to the ill, and that allows its members to live with hope, in peace and security. I regard a large standing military as nothing more than an organized welfare state with weapons, better put to use building the infrastructure which makes our society strong.

Which is why I’m voting for Barack Obama.

Sidney? The IIIrd?!

Much, far too much, has been made about Barack Obama’s middle name. It’s Hussein, as if you didn’t know. Hussein. Get it? As though that’s all you need to know. Do you really want a President with a foreign-sounding name like Hussein? Hell, you’d be outta your mind! Damn! Gotta be a terrorist for sure with a middle name like that! At least he must be some kinda Muslim. Sure, people say he’s Baptist. But everyone knows he’s a secret Muslim. Why else would he have a name like Hussein?

Hussein. That settles the issue. ‘Nuf said.

Well, I figured if a man’s middle name could be so informative regarding his true nature I thought I’d look up John McCain’s middle name to see what it could reveal about him.

What I found is that his full name is John Sidney McCain III.


Sidney. That’s probably not too well known a snippet of information. Certainly not as well known as Barack Obama’s middle name. I mean, when I was a kid most Sidneys I knew ended being playthings for bullies or playground fodder. I mean, take a look at poor old Philip Sidney. What do you think would happen to him if he dropped into the local Teamsters bar looking for directions?

Now, do you really want a guy with a name like Sidney answering that phone at three in the morning? I thought not.

And what’s that IIIrd all about? I mean, who’s the elitist here? The only people I’ve ever known who had numerals after their names either had unimaginative, lazy parents or were elitist wannabes. E.g. Thurston Howell III of Gilligan’s Island.


Of course, all talk about Obama’s elitism is a smokescreen for the real issue. It’s merely Republican code for “uppity”. GOP criticism of Barack Obama amounts to nothing more than the racist distrust of an “uppity” nigra.

Now, do you really believe that John Sidney McCain III is an elitist wannabe with a name that guarantees he’ll be beat up in the playground of international affairs?

I thought not.

Because a person’s name says little about who he is.

So drop the “Hussein” issue. It means absolutely nothing at all.

Even Sidney knows this.