Just Don't Answer the Telephone

Here in Georgia, the political season is open season on liberals, and it has fired up. TV ads, recorded telephone messages, yard signs, all the hoopla of the primaries.

Georgia is a red state. Candidates jockey for the pole position, trumpeting their dislike for anything Obama and making promises they obviously can’t keep. Our little Clarke County may be the only dot of blue in Georgia. We’ve been gerrymandered out of significance.

The good news – our dreadful Representative, Congressman Paul Broun, has decided to run for Senator and he’s lagging behind. Broun is the one who denies evolution (“lies straight from the pit of hell”). He serves on the House Science and Technology Committee. He plays to his strength in the hinterlands, so we may yet see more of him.

But I’m drawn to political events in Mexico, a century ago, when their revolution spilled across the Rio. Between 1910 and 1920 a succession of saviors arose, promising support for the oppressed common man. Madero, Huerta, Carranza, Orozco, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and others all took a shot at leading Mexico. Each of these revolutionary saviors, once they entered Mexico City, became the oppressors they’d vowed to displace. The aura of the Capitol and its wealth drew them in.

The best of the lot seems to have been Zapata. He understood the problems of the peons, and the loss of their village lands to the rich. Zapata was fluent in the native Nahuatl language (Marlon Brando played him in a movie). His was an army of peons. Presidente Carranza had Zapata murdered.

Perhaps we expect too much of our politicians. After all, there are no easy solutions, no quick fixes. Once in office our representatives must confront the inertia of their political parties, the enormity of our governing institutions, pressure from lobbyists large and small. I think society progresses more rapidly than our government does. And that’s a good thing.

Let’s strive to keep our equilibrium until elections are done.

And don’t answer the telephone.

Dac Crossley
April 29, 2014

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” - Milan Kundera.

Comments

[DaveW]

Geez Dac, you really know how to elect'm in the 10th. A fundamentalist who supports marriage - and has been married four times to prove it. An MD who doesn't believe in embryology? And both anti-evolution and anti-Big Bang. Well, I guess those are consistent with his beliefs anyway.

Nice to see Darwin got a respectable number of write-in votes at the last election.

[Jan okey]

Many thanks Dac. You are ahead of the curve. We live in a complicated world - stay
alert. Goodby Mr. Broun (I hope) May our weather stay calm . Keep us posted. Please
know you are appreciated.

[Kevin Leftwich]

Don't get hit by Margaret Hamilton!

[Sam James]

Years ago I wanted to honor a Mexican with the naming of a new genus of earthworms, so I chose Zapatadrilus as the name. It is good to see that I chose the best of a questionable lot. anyhow, remember the dire proverb: "we get the politicians we deserve."

[Chris Antenen]

Hit the nail on the head, Dac, and to compound our problem with unwanted phone calls, we're planning to buy a car. We got on the computer to look yesterday and got a call while we were looking. They make you give them phone number and email userid before you can get to anything meaningful on the website, like price.
The sad part is what you pointed out, that getting into office is like putting them through a process that corrupts -- sooner or later.

[J. R. Lindermuth]

Hope you can avoid those funnel clouds.
One of my on again, off again projects is a novel about Madero and his dreadful successor, Huerta.
As to Broun, it astonishes me how a science denier can get a seat on the science committee.