Sunday, November 18, 2007

The Penguin's Presidential primary picks

Okay, here's some principles I'm going to use this time. First of all, I'm going to automatically disqualify the "sensible" candidates, those who stick to "conventional wisdom". It was "conventional wisdom" that got us into this mess our nation is in, and "conventional wisdom" ain't gonna get us out. So I say we ought to vote for the nuttiest, flakiest candidates around, because what we need in insane times is a candidate who isn't bothered by insanity.

Oddly enough, the "crazy" candidates in this Presidential race actually make more sense than the "sensible" candidates. Let's take, for example, Republican candidate Ron Paul. Okay, so his proposal to return the U.S. to the gold standard makes absolutely no sense at all. The gold standard automatically builds deflation into the economy, since the amount of gold in circulation rises slower than the amount of goods in the economy. Deflation basically makes dollars more expensive. Deflation is good for rich people with lots of money in the bank, their dollars are now worth more, but is horrible for poor slobs like you and I who actually owe money and have to repay those debts in the now-more-expensive dollars. The gold standard was a major cause of the Great Depression, which is why one of FDR's first acts upon becoming President was to ditch it.

Many of his other proposals are similarly nutty. Still, Ron Paul is the only candidate in the Republican race to not only have voted against the Iraq war, but to have voted against the Patriot Act too. And he's the only Republican to take a clear stand against torture and against "disappearing" terrorists into extraterritorial prisons such as Guantanamo Bay. And he's the only Republican to point out the simple fact that it's America's constant overseas interventions that make America hated, not our "freedoms". As the only anti-war anti-torture pro-habeas-corpus Republican in the race, he is thus the only Republican candidate that any of the few remaining sane Republicans should vote for, no matter how nutty his other beliefs are. In these insane times, Ron Paul's lack of sanity is an advantage, not a disadvantage.

Okay, now over to the Democratic side of things. There is a gnat's difference between the top four candidates other than their gender and ethnicity. You toss their policy proposals on the table and they all pretty much look the same. So let's look at the bottom tier. Mike Gravel is an interesting character, but way too old. He's at a time in his life when he's supposed to be out on his front porch shaking his fist at the kids and yelling "you kids get off my lawn!". Of the rest, there is only one candidate who voted against the Iraq War, voted against the Patriot Act, and proposes a single-payer Medicare for All system for reform of the U.S. health care system, and that's the hobbit -- Dennis Kucinich. Okay, yes he says he saw a UFO. So what? The top candidates didn't see a UFO but they all either voted for the Iraq war or weren't in a position to do so. In these insane times, maybe what we need as President is someone who thinks there's aliens stashed in Area 51. At the very least we might find out whether that's so or not :-).

So that's this penguin's picks for the Republican and Democratic primaries: Ron Paul(R), and Dennis Kucinich(D). Vote for the crazies. Because haven't we had enough fun with the "sensible people" running our country into the ground?!

-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

9 comments:

  1. I have always liked Dennis Kucinich. I didn't realize he saw a UFO. I wouldn't be surprised if many of us saw UFOs, but didn't realize it.

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  2. There's nothing very off-the-wall about Kucinich, he's just a straight ahead liberal.

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  3. SHHH, Bryan! That's supposed to be our little secret! Haven't you noticed the media "frame" being applied to Kucinich that he's "crazy"?

    Indeed, the "crazy" candidates are the only ones making sense. Vote for the crazies. Because haven't we had enough of the other kind (the kind the media tells us are sane)?

    -- Badtux the Snarky Penguin

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  4. Life is like a can of mixed nuts. The big ones work their way to the top and we get to vote for them. Even Ron has his own interests in this fucked up political system.

    I respectfully suggest that you get ready to kiss Americas ass goodbye. Because it deserves to fail anyway.

    Like I've said before, even though I seem to be the only one that sees it, but the Roman Empire was reborn here and is posing as Christians.

    Not to worry, others will see it as time goes along. It will be too late, but they will see it.

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  5. You are only a liberal as long as it fits your own interests. Or until you have to start paying extra taxes to pay for what you support. Like all those dead beats.

    So tell me, do you like supporting them?

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  6. bbc, back when i made lots of money, i paid lots of taxes. cheerfully. didn't bother me a bit who benefited, as they probably needed it more than i did.

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  7. BBC, I pay more taxes in a year than you make in income in a year and don't mind a bit. The taxpayers paid much of my college education (this was before Reagan gutted the Pell Grant program), I view it as paying back what the taxpayers invested in me. Which shows just how... shortsighted... the current attitude of "I got mine and f*** you" is. Would our nation have been better off if I'd gone on to be a common laborer or something rather than someone who has designed multiple products that you probably have used without knowing it?

    - Badtux the Engineer Penguin

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  8. one of the most telling moments in robert graves i, claudius (and it figured prominently in the bbc production shown on pbs) was when claudius, a determined and committed republican (in the roman, not american sense) realized that by being a good steward to the empire he was actually destroying any chance of a return to the republic. in the book he makes a conscious and rational decision to step away and allow things to degenerate. his phrase, which is briliant (graves was a poet of great skill) was:

    let the poisons hatch out in the mud!

    vote for the crazies! fuck. yeah.

    and no goddamned incumbents while we're at it.

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  9. Over at the web comic "A Town Called Dobson" Dennis is named "Super K". Go back through the comics (which have posts accompanying them), and you'll read what many people don't know about him, since he isn't one of the 'top' candidates. I'd much rather vote for him, but I'm pretty sure he won't be selected to be the D.

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