Take the Red Pill – Think and Vote Independent.

I know I don’t have many readers if any – but maybe someone out there will pick this up. Maybe there are people out there who are listening.

I once had a person ask me if I was voting Democratic? I told him no. He told me that he was, because ‘he was smart’ and by implication I wasn’t. It was offensive, and I told him so, especially because he was working for a local school district and I was working in free enterprise. And then came the excuses about no WMD’s in Iraq, the ‘stay the course’ as a strategy speech, Katrina, lack of determined action on health care, excuses about firing Rumsfeld, the banking bust and then TARP. In the last election I voted for Bob Barr. I couldn’t trust Obama with my wallet, and the Republicans become something out of a Monty Python skit.

Now as a brief tangent – I want to look at scene from recent global political history. In the late 1930’s Europe was dominated by Nazi Germany and their chief rival in the region was the USSR. It was Hitler vs. Stalin. Left vs. Right. Surely there was one side to cheer for? From all that we know – no. Here is what they did:

• Directly killed over 50 million in 10 year window thru war or non-sustainable imprisonment.
• Actively enslaved their own country mean (through direct or indirect means? who really cares) to forward their own personal ambitions.
• Almost destroyed their own countries.

Neither country was worth supporting. When we defeated Nazi Germany, many Nazi officials and officers actually tried to compel us to take up arms with them to defeat the Communists, seeming to not understand that they were are  as corrupted and diabolical as their opponent. It’s only out of circumstances that we had a brief military alliance with Russia – a kind of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ thing. If you’ve been alive for more than 30 years you know for certain just how bad the cold war aftermath was.

The point is that you can have two opposed groups and neither one is with supporting.

The far right is now what I call a ‘Schoolyard Bully’ fringe. They intimidate others, attempt to keep people in line by scaring the hell out of them or reminding them why the should be scared. They don’t believe in rational government regulation because they don’t want to get caught swindling others. And when the chips are down they are far less likely to be reasonable, rational, principled or consistent, and they are not ashamed of this. They are actually soft.

The far left is the ‘Confidence Man’ fringe. It’s taken me a long time, but after watching enough episodes of Lost I’ve figured it out. They are con artists. They want you to think that all the things they want to do are really your idea. They take their time. They flash some cash. They say nice things about you. They get a supporting actor to play the victim part. And when you bite on their ideas, just remember they are not to blame when you are stuck with the bill. After all – you are the one that said yes. Try to expose them for what they are and these ‘thoughtful, patient, intellectual types’ will try to tear you to pieces. They are actually vicious.

And just to be fair, the far right has held more than a few in their ‘confidence’, and the far left has bulled more than their share as well. But in general this is the way they act. Both support classical un-American positions such as nationalization of entire industries or getting a bailout when their financial empires come crashing down. They believe that corporations exist to be used as hosts and drained until they go bankrupt, or that those that cannot afford health care are just losers – there is no problem.

They tend to both be takers, not makers. They wouldn’t have their place with out the creators such as Jobs and Gates, Ford and Durant, Edison and Bell and all of the other countless men and women that worked with them or like them to make their lives better by making others more productive. This is the real American Way. It’s the Win-Win scenario and it’s not easy. This is what people are striving for. And this is what is at stake.