For all of you who know me, one of my passions is musical theatre; Broadway Show Tunes/Music. So you will then understand that the title of this blog is from a wonderful show called “Pal Joey” that was written by Rogers and Hart. Now what does this have to do with a blog? Especially an Alan Graubard blog that usually has to do with politics or my views on the world in general.
As I was walking to and from Synagogue today, this song title came into my head and I realized it was perfect to what I wanted to say. Yes, I do observe the Jewish Sabbath and walk to Shul (the Jewish word for Temple or Synagogue for all of my non-Jewish readers and those who are Jewish and didn’t recognize the word).
So where is this going? Let me put it into perspective. We (I am now talking about my generation – the war babies who were born right at the beginning of the war and who have seen this country go up and down and up and down) are products of our environments and, for the most part, had our politics shaped from within our home. I’m not saying this is still the case but be honest with yourselves and realize that if Mom and Dad said they were “Democrats or Republicans” then when you were asked at school which one you were it was always what you heard at home. Many of us are still that way but don’t realize why. But I have to proudly admit that many of us are also more independent in our way of thinking and have either broken with our “family traditions” or are truly Independent voters. The other labels (Liberal and Conservative) usually are new words for Democrat or Republican.
My house was a Democratic house. I remember that pride when Truman won and the sadness when Stevenson lost twice. After that we were out of the house but still, for the most part, maintaining the “in-bred” political allegiances. The JFK Nixon debate brought us into the world of TV and how that medium became the overall influence for things to come when it came to political agendas. If I need to bring that point home just look at the past few weeks on TV and the various methods used by both parties to try to bring their cases to the American public.
OK, but the title, Alan, the title. Where is this going?
Bewitched
Like many of millions of Americans I was bewitched in the last election by the Democratic Nominee, our current president. I was also not a supporter of his during the primary as I wanted Hillary to get the nod. But, once the very American series of Primaries was over, we (the Democrats) had its nominee and most Hillary supporters fell into line. Let’s face it we were “bewitched” by the rhetoric and electrifying manner of his interaction with the public. The other side put up a good candidate but he messed it up with his choice of running mate. I will just leave it at that. It’s also true that the country was still reeling from a series of things from the previous administration and a change was definitely in the air and in the voting booths.
The country was “bewitched” by our new president and his young family. America was truly the land of opportunity for all peoples as we now had our first minority president (I’m talking real life and not “24” which predated the real election by a few years). What we didn’t know that the reaction to this would be so mean and hurtful and the opposition (hell, the Republican Party) made it very clear that their agenda was to make this a one-term presidency. And so they should take that approach as they are the opposition. Nothing wrong with that. But, it became clear that this agenda was not going to take into account the negligence to the American public on certain items that needed to be addressed and politics should have taken a back seat.
So the period of “bewitched” came to a very quick close as the bickering became more and more vocal and the naivety of the new administration became apparent.
Bothered
I first became very bothered when the first need for this country was to address the mess left to us by previous administration and Wall Street and this was only partially addressed. But what really bothered me was the manner in which the new Democratic majority in the Congress started behaving. The crowning touch came when they didn’t care about anything else (and I mean anything else) except pushing through their version of medical reform which is referenced to as “Obama Care”. Now you have to understand I lived in Australia for 21 years and saw the best and the worst of socialized medicine. Overall it works in Australia because it is a “marriage” of government mandate plus private insurance; the best of 2 worlds. What we have here (and let’s face it no one knows what we have here as the over 2,000 page document has still not been broken out for us mere mortals to understand) is something that is very scary. And what made it worse is that this took preference over the jobs, foreclosures, immigration, wars (closing them down), the Middle East and probably lots of other things I am forgetting (oh yes the years do make me forget some things).
So now I along with many millions of my fellow Americans (I always wanted to use that phrase and I now I did) are starting to wonder what is going on here. His speech to the Arab nations put chills down my spine and I was really getting bothered by his negligence of the many things that were not getting done. Granted, the Republicans were having a great time in thwarting many other things but they were getting “Obama Care” rammed down their throats.
Add to this the many other things he has neglected to address and you now face the debacle the Democrats faced during the last Congressional elections when the Tea Party reared its “head and might” and became the dominant influence. All of a sudden the moderate Republican (now this is a phrase that may soon be extinct) leadership has to be cognizant of the influence of the newcomers who have no history or hidden agendas in Congress (except as we are starting to find out the payback of their major supporters by issuing new legislation favoring their agendas – but save this for another day). Now this is a new bother and this then came to the forefront when this country’s debt crisis came to a head. When Republicans who have routinely voted for debt ceiling limit raises (17 if I’m not mistaken under previous administrations) suddenly “see the lights” then the worst of political agendas becomes very clear and I am very “bothered” by the way both sides are handling this crisis.
Bewildered
The stage is now set for an historic election and the delivery of the promise of a one-term president. So what is my bewilderment? Did you see the Republican debate the other night? Come on people, there are 8 people on the stage who all want to be the next President of the United States. Yes, they first have to defeat the other 7 (and there may be more soon) to win the nomination so hence the reason for “debates”. Please forgive me for saying this but when I was in school a debate was a forum for making ones point and debating your position with the other team. This “debate” showed nothing of the sort but rather the trying to hurt the other person by bringing up things from their past and/or present positions in politics or business. So we had the customary “my State is better than yours” between the governors, the business man trying to make a point that he can create jobs and turn the country around like a pizza shop (then why isn’t his pizza company number one?) a Congressman who really scares me (more on that soon) and another Congresswoman who has to try to appease the movement she champions but realizes that there are some major flaws that need to be addressed. In watching this I realized that the one candidate they party should put their efforts behind is probably not going to be the nominee due to his being able to work with the “other party” (Speaker of the House working with the Democratic President); his extra-marital affair (hello Thomas Jefferson, FDR, JFK and numerous others we don’t know the details about); his charge account at Tiffany’s (hello – our politicians have to be very wealthy people in order to run and not have to live on the meager salary we pay our President). Would it be better if he shows his Wal-Mart charge card? He was the only person on that stage that made sense. Oh yes, another thing that probably is sitting on people’s minds is that his name may be a hindrance. His name sounds like a Dr. Seuss character and are the American People ready to have a “Cat in the Hat” President?
So now it's up to the Republicans to put up a real candidate and they will win. How's that for a challenge? Sort of like having the Democrats putting up "anyone" last time. How was that for a "no brainer"? And where did that leave us?
I have tried to explain my title and I hope I have been able to voice my concerns for what is going on. I am voter who votes for the person and has to hope he/she can control their respective party.
I don’t like labels but we are all part of this process. I was talking to a friend the other day who says that he starts off the day with Fox News and can’t understand anyone every watching MSNBC due to their “radical views”. I bit my tongue on that one as both stations are guilty and that is what makes this country a great one.
I will look forward to hearing from any of you on this (aye or nay).
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