George Carlin Had It Right
George Carlin – The American Dream (2005):
George Carlin was right in 2005, when he made this presentation, and he is even more right today. The question is this: what do we do about it? Do we re-elect Obama or do we start looking, seriously looking, for a solution? My answer is that we start, right now, looking for a viable third-party candidate. Now, I’m quite familiar with those whose knee-jerk reaction to that statement is, “you’re throwing your vote away by voting third-party.” My answer to that is that I already threw my vote away in 2006, 2008 and 2010. There has been no change in this country – we are still spending billions of dollars that we can ill-afford in military adventurism in Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Libya. We have millions of unemployed people desperate for a job, any job. We have a vastly unequal wealth distribution in this country. We have a crumbling infrastructure. We have environmental catastrophes – enormous wildfires, severe droughts, disastrous floods, devastating tornadoes. We have sociopaths as governors in several states. We have Republicans running for the presidency who would have been committed to the insane asylum 75 years ago for being pathological liars. Has Obama done anything about any of this? No. Don’t give me excuses about how Obama was dealt a bad hand and that he has to deal with mean Republicans. Obama has no spine and neither does the Democratic Party. Tell me why Obama should be re-elected. Because the alternative is worse? That worked in 2008 for me, but I will no longer vote for the lesser of two evils. Voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil. It is very, very late in the game and many think that the only choice they have is poison or a bullet as their fate. Me? I’m going to choose hope and change. And it isn’t going to be the hope and change that Obama peddled in 2008 and will try to peddle again in 2012.
To Be Continued …
And…they would not only have to be able to help people to see the truth, but be able to inspire those people to believe that real hope and change are possible. I used to believe that myself (back when I voted for Obama), but now wonder if the corporate interests are too entrenched. We need a revolution.
I just wrote a long, long comment (and stupidly did not copy it) only to lose it after getting a message that I didn’t have cookies and Java Script enabled. I have no idea why that happened as I haven’t had trouble before. Anyway, I tried restoring my computer to an earlier time, so hopefully that will work.
Essentially, my comment said that Tom and I are trying not to become completely bitter and cynical after our own losing fight (Worker’s Comp) with the “system.” Not to mention the huge hospital bill we have after Tom’s two-day stay in the hospital (despite the fact that we have “insurance.”) I will be very interested to read your follow-up post, Jeff, as I would welcome a viable third-party candidate that would actually have some hope of being elected. He or she would have to be able to cut through the Republican party propaganda BS that the masses seem to swallow (THAT, I think, is the REAL opiate of the masses.)
Yeah, I can see that happening–we might get some whacko like Michele Bachmann for President next time because people expect Obama to pull a rabbit out of a hat and he can’t even do his job because half his country is fighting against him and hoping he’ll fail. That would be some black swan event. I can’t even imagine what will happen if ANY of those candidates get in. They’re all nuts. Seriously Jeff, I find him to be sincere. No one can do more than he’s been doing. It’s amazing he’s accomplished what he has with the Republicans blocking everything he does. He shouldn’t have buckled to the Republicans demanding that he extend the tax breaks for the rich, but they were threatening to make it worse if he didn’t give in. And sometimes you have to lose a battle to win a war. If you think voting for a third party candidate will be better, all that’s going to do is insure the Republicans get back in. THAT is evil.
I’d love to watch the video because I love George Carlin but can’t use too many gigabytes or whatever it’s called. Our Internet provider has been punishing us suddenly.
Anyway, I think you’re making a mistake Jeff. Obama is a good man and a good president. He is doing the best he can to fight the Republicans without making it blow up even worse. It’s an art. If you find someone else who will fight against everything, the Republicans will go crazy. It will be like putting fuel on the fire. Obama is chipping away at them. He can’t just go in there and flip over tables! You think he doesn’t want to stop the wars and make sure all Amercans have access to affordable health care? Of course he does. The Republicans are counting on the impatience of the liberals. Divide and conquer. It’s nice to say that you’re going to stick to your principles and not vote for the lesser of two evils, but if we don’t stick together, we are screwed.
Nope. Evil is evil and you, of all people, ought to know about evil. My next post will address the so-called “futility” of a third party vote. The situation in this country is vastly more serious than many people think and there is a very high probability of a Black Swan event that will result in an extraordinarily surprising turn of events.