All Politicians Have a Facade

Found this nugget on Yahoo! today. Credit to Craig Wilson of USA Today.

I have always harbored a basic, even instinctive mistrust of all politicians. Doesn't matter whether they're Rep or Dem, leftie or rightie, they're all politicians. One of the reasons for this mistrust is my ingrained belief that they're all choreographed - carefully - to project an "image."

The "farm" vs. "ranch" complaint outlined in the article just highlights one of the basic problems with modern politics in America: Two rich white males (with equally rich white running mates) are suddenly trying to convince us poor down-trodden types that they're "one of us."

Oh, please.

Save it for Barbara Walters, guys. The rest of us ain't buying it. Well, on second thought, perhaps we are.

One of the funniest statements I ever hear from the person on the street (<- NOTE: attempt to be PC for the day!) goes something like: "I'm gonna vote for So-and-So because he really understands how it is!"

Say what?

Isn't this the same fella that probably hasn't driven his own vehicle on a real American freeway in the last decade? Has this turkey done his own shopping in an actual supermarket recently? Does he even know what the interest rate on his mortgage (assuming he even has one) may be? This <insert name of candidate here> has staff to take care of this stuff, for crying out loud.

Once we put 'em in office, ladies and gentlemen, they no longer qualify as "one of us."

Believe it or not, I do have an actual bottom line to all of this rambling random brain activity: As the government drifts farther and farther from its Constitutional roots, we as a constituency need to stop buying into the PR. Both candidates have massive PR machines which handle their carefully choreographed imagery during the campaign, and, worse, during their tenure in office. So, as a constituency, we also begin to fall into the trap of believing that our leaders need to be somehow super-human. Instead, we should expect (and settle for nothing less than) leaders with actual vision, dedication to the Constitution, and moral courage to do the right thing whether that captures the popular vote or not.

* sigh *

Dream on, Woody.