No, just screw politics

| May 16, 2012

This post has been about four years in the writing, since one of the Tea Party rallies when Uncle Jimbo and I were bemoaning the trials and tribulations of trying to blog about the Left vs. Right politics and we both said that we’d rather blog about the military without involving politics for a change.

Today, I looked through my inbox today which has 6,514 “important” emails in it. Going through it, I see campaign crap from people I’ve never heard of – no offense to the folks who live in Utah, but I really don’t think I’ll be supporting a candidate whose name I’ve never heard or read a word about their position just because they think I’m a Republican.

And I really don’t care that Obama rewrote all of the presidential biographies on the White House website – yeah, OK, I care, but I expected it from him. But, I didn’t elect him. And do you really think that Romney wouldn’t do the same thing? In fact, looking at the two presidential candidates, are they really all that different?

For the first time in my lifetime, neither candidate has military service. So who do I support – neither are going give a tiny rat’s ass about veterans. Do you think Romney has the guts to roll back veteran health care cuts?

In that interview I did last week, they had to go back to 2008 to find a quote on this blog about Romney – and the quote wasn’t even mine. Because I never thought about him, good, bad or indifferent. I had an inkling years ago that he’d be the Republican candidate this year. I’m not happy about it and I won’t vote for him.

If you come right down to it, voting for Obama is the same as voting for Romney. There’s not a bit of difference between the two of them. Not. A. Bit. Either one of them would take my guns without thinking twice about it. They both want an expansive government that sticks it’s nose in my business. Both would raise my taxes on a whim. Both want to balance the Defense budget on the lives of the next generation of trigger pullers.

And don’t get me started on Congress….

From this point forward, this blog is about nothing but the troops, national defense and veterans. Yes, I’ll still criticize the candidates…but only as far as it effects those issues. Screw politics…no one is listening to me anyway, because I said I was going to do this when Gingrich got into the race.

So if you work on a campaign and you’re currently sending me press releases about your idiot candidate, please STOP! I haven’t endorsed him in the last three years you’ve been sending your crap, so why would you continue? If you belong to a think tank and you think I’m interested in your crack pot theories about taxation and social engineering, please STOP! If it doesn’t have to do with the troops or veterans, stuff it. I don’t fricken care.

I’m partisan in that I think all of you politically-connected geeks are in this for yourselves and don’t care about anyone who doesn’t work at your bank.

I’m not giving any money to any political party – my money is going to the VSOs who have proven in the past to be concerned about my issues. But the Republicans in Congress act like Democrats, so why would I give either of them any money?

Will I still blast VoteVets and IAVA when they act like partisan hacks? Yes, most definitely. I hate blatant hypocrisy.

I can already feel the burdens lifting from my aging shoulders.

Category: Pointless blather

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NHSparky

I tell the RNC pretty much the same thing when the come a-calling with their hats in their hands. I gave up giving when they stopped giving a shit about me as a citizen.

As my profile somewhere says, I’m a conservative first, a Republican a distant second.

But to make a slight correction, even veterans inside the beltway can stay there so long they forget what it was like to serve, witness Murtha and McCain.

CI

Jonn, you tagged this under ‘Pointless Blather’…but in reality, you’ve hit the point straight on and honestly.

Brian L.

Thanks for putting it so succinctly, Jonn. You’ve summed up exactly what I’ve been thinking for the past 10+ months or so now. Well, this and some other crackpot thoughts that’d have Janet Napolitano all over me, but I’m not admitting to those anyway. 🙂

Just A Grunt

OK so we can put you in the ‘Undecided’ column.

Just for the record I think Obama is by far the worse of the two. I don’t believe Romney will surround himself with the ideologically pure type people that Obama has and rule by fiat. I have always said the real change has to come about in the congress but as much as people bitch and moan and groan about congress when it comes time to toss out the old bomb dodgers out, they continue to vote them back in. If you have more time in congress then most of us have on the planet it’s time to pick out a good retirement home. The old everybody’s congress critter is bad, except mine syndrome.

OWB

Works for me.

The Earthpig

Well said!!

PintoNag

I agree with everything above.

I don’t like or trust Romney either. And while I am a conservative, it’s been a long time since I called myself a Republican.

ohio

The GOP has made it very, very clear that they don’t actually need the Conservative vote. They merely trade on our dislike for the Democrat label and thus rightly discern that we will go along with the GOP label. And we go along with it because it’s easier to maintain our expectations of the GOP than to face its realities: it IS the Left. . . in drag. I have completely lost faith in the Republican leadership. They don’t take the Democrats to task for failing to propose a budget, they give Holder a pass on Fast and Furious, and roll over for unconstitutional recess appointments. I’m disgusted with them

Dave

Believe Heinlein said that a revolution is an event where we throw their crooked scoundrels out, so we can put our own crooked scoundrels in. Can’t see where an election is much different. Only thing that IS different now, for the last 20 some-odd years we have had a one-party system in place in which we choose which member of the plutocracy will screw us for the next 4 years.

UtahVet

This just became my favorite blog on the net. No shit. I’ve been looking for a troops/issues/vets blog for a long time with no politics in it. Hell, I might even click on shit now.

Just Plain Jason

Ill give that man a harrumph!

AF REMFER

Actually Romney and Obama are quite different and it really does matter which gets elected. Your service and that of millions of Americans was in part to protect the ability to make distinctions about our representation and leadership. Stop with the farsical 3rd Partyeske stupidity about there being no difference between Left and Right. Or perhaps you think there is no difference between the situations that California and Wisconsin find themselves in and Gov Brown is just like Gov Walker?

AF REMFER

The crybaby purity “Vets issues only” shit is tiresome. Man up, get involved and choose. And understand that if u don’t someone else will be influencing the issues you care about as you take your ball and go home.

CI

@12 – You can always point to two diametrically opposed politicians. I could point to Reagan v. FDR….it really doesn’t diminish the fact that both parties have used their position, the population and the media as mere steeping stones in a never ending quest for regaining and/or maintaining power.

You can keep voting in the status quo if you’d like…and keep wondering why the size of government keeps growing and the level of individual liberty keeps diminishing… irrespective of the party in power.

Alex F.

Romney is bad (I was at BC when he was governor up there, he’ll say anything he thinks will get him elected–think the Republican John Kerry), but Obama is flat-out ruinous. Romney is a tourniquet right now, he isn’t likely to roll back many of Obama’s socialist policies (with the important exception, hopefully, of Obamacare) but he’ll at least stop the bleeding.

I am NOT a Romney fan, but the only real argument you can make against him at this point is that electing him means it’ll be at least 8 years before we can get a true conservative in office, whereas if Obama is re-elected we could get one in 4. But to that I would answer that after 4 more years of Obama, a conservative President could very well be too little too late.

AF REMFER

@14 Reagan used his position to push policies to revitalize the American Economy and destroy the Soviet Union while the Democrats in Congress pushed social programs. FDR used his to push big government welfare on America for 9 years until WWII saved his ass. But guess what? There’s no more money. The question now is not if but what will be cut. The Left has their priorities and I guaren damn tee you military defense and veterans aren’t included. Neither is a diminished welfare entitlement monstrosity whereby the productive will support the lazy. Where our Constitutional liberties are trashed. But America will ultimately get what she wants. Why does government continually grow? Because too many Americans are fucking hooked on government goodies.

AF REMFER

@16 That stuff is noise John. It’s the filler that gives us something other than budget deficits and tax policy to talk about. It isn’t real and it certainly shouldn’t keep people from engaging (voting) on the things that matter.

Graves

Bull byproducts. The reason we’re talking trivia is because those who control what is put before the public want very much to avoid substance since their guy loses there. I’m already seeing the results of the Dem “budgets” and expect to see more until they convince me to finally retire, so saying there is no difference is anti-reality. You can accept a group who wants to barbecue you or you can accept a group who wants to ignore you, and if you think those are the same, you have serious issues.

Tony

I have heard the argument of “there’s no dime’s worth of difference” between the two parties before and it proves no more convincing to me now then it did in college. I am going to have to take issue with the assessment there’s somehow no difference between the candidates and by default the parties. Truth be told all parties must rely upon their base to show up. There’s a fine, but well distinguished line between having them show up and merely taking for granted that they’ll materialize.

I believe Romney to be a pragmatic technocrat. That’s why he will be receiving nothing other than my vote. No phone calls, no precinct walking, no support save my vote. He’s too vanilla. But to say he’s no different from Obama is beyond the pale. Romney has openly opined to room full of his donors that he’d do away with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He even took great pains to say Dept. of Education wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, but that dismantling it would be political suicide. He’s a pragmatist and that’s not such a bad thing.

Despite all the hyperbole used to describe the president, he too has been forced to be a pragmatist of sorts and all the soaring rhetoric he once used will now be abandoned for more bloddy knuckle tactics. In short he is merely a man, not a demi-god. He is not the one for whom we’ve been waiting. He has to be pragmatic like the rest. But that’s where the similarities end.

Byzantium

Bad idea, I think. Like all politicians, both Romney and Obama will go where the votes and the campaign funding are, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since it means that by applying the right pressure you can actually make them promote your issues even if they don’t believe in these themselves (look at Obama with the whole gay marriage thing – a pure political necessity). By sitting out the fight you are just allowing other forces to shape national policy instead, and will be left with nothing but your discontent when things don’t go in your direction.
Besides, if you don’t participate in the process you don’t get to complain about the outcome, and where’s the fun in that?

Eric

Every time I think about politicians in Washington I remember two quotes:

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
– Animal Farm

“I don’t wanna overthrow them, I wanna fire them!”
– Gallagher (Watermelon smashing comedian)

Hondo

Your call on whether to cover politics, Jonn – this is your place.

But I have to disagree with the tone of your article. Even though neither candidate is my favorite, there IS a difference.

The late Robert A. Heinlein said it best IMO:

“If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for … but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.”

Been using that quote as a guide for over 35 years. It’s never let me down.

NHSparky

The biggest reason I’m voting for Romney in November isn’t because I want him in, but because I want Obama OUT. Elections DO have consequences.

I’m looking a bit beyond who occupies 1600 Penn. Ave. We’ve seen the “wise Latina” and Kagan, neither of whom I’d consider particularly qualified to sit on the SCOTUS put on it. In the next four years, we’re looking at two, perhaps three more justices retiring. Who the president nominates in 2013-2014 is going to have a much more profound effect on the Republic which will last far beyond the term of the president who nominates them or the Senate that approves them.

Joe

I think your strong suit is vets issues, but I don’t expect you’ll have the will power to bite your tongue on politics…

NHSparky

Just like you don’t have the will power to unplug your fucking meter?