Green Means Go, Dems!

To pick up where we left off in the last post; spineless, feckless Centrism continues to rear its grisly head in the form of over-the-hill Democratic Party leadership and their utter lack of willingness to proceed with the impeachment of Herr Drumpf.  Even in the wake of would-be savior, Robert Mueller's short, but sweet statement yesterday (in which he practically begged congress to do something/anything), good old Nervous Nancy is sticking to her unloaded guns.

What we continue to see from the so-called adults in the room is nothing more than overthinking matters to the point of paralysis, the Superego to the GOP's Id.  We must demand that ALL of our leaders, regardless of party, start acting (to continue with the Freudian model) more out of Ego: "the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego."  Democrats clearly fancy themselves as being just that, but I've always likened them more to the Washington Generals vs. the (irony of ironies) GOP's Harlem Globetrotters.

Seriously though, Democrats - they've been spinning this country on their finger for my entire life.. Just take it!!! 

VEEP, Then and Now

Over six plus years later, where does one begin to begin?

I'll suggest we commence with my brother and I exchanging texts regarding the final episode of 'VEEP':

So yeah, that pretty well sums up where we're at in the good ole US of A, ca. 2019! 

That being said, or texted, or whatever.. I admittedly can't help thinking back to how I, too, fell into the same trap I'm now decrying. (Hindsight is 2020?!) 

I'm hearkening back to 2008 in my texts, but it's the 2000 election I really deign to recall, as it was my first as a registered voter (and holy hell, what a way to start!).

I had previously worked as an After-school & Summer Camp counselor at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House on the Upper East side of Manhattan, where my father also worked, which is how I came to hear in person a surprisingly rousing speech by then Vice and Would-Be President, Al Gore.

Embed from Getty Images

This was my first, firsthand lesson in politics 101:  The Mainstream News Media is indeed almost entirely full of shit (which our current Commander-in-Thief has relentlessly and successfully hammered home).  Old Al would get repeatedly bludgeoned by those on both the left and right for being this droll, listless automaton of a politician, but that was a far cry from what I saw.

What I saw at Lenox Hill in 2000 was the passionate, inspired and frankly inspiring man who would go on to win an Academy Award for the even still prescient documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Where, oh where would we be as a country, much less a civilization, if only he had not been so unimaginably screwed out of the Presidency?

Now, we haven't spoken of it in many years, but in full disclosure - my father was SO very angry with my mother and I for our audacious decision to vote our consciences in 2000 (i.e. for Ralph Nader).  Our argument was that of course if we lived someplace like say, FLORIDA, surely we would have voted for Gore. Nevertheless, my father did not appreciate being called 'Shirley' and regrettably we did not think to look into those voter exchanges!!

So where am I going with this?  Simply put, Democrats still to this day are trying to address a variation of this issue that roiled the Weeks household nearly twenty years ago.  Play it safe with a Centrist Democrat? Or go with a candidate who truly believes in positions that go beyond mere incremental change towards a slightly more just version of the status quo (whatever the hell that means)?!

Obama and Clinton were centrist beneficiaries of 8 and 12 years, respectively, of horrendously failed GOP policies.  I suppose it's plausible another centrist (Biden? Harris?) could swoop/cash in on the Trump cataclysm, but I am much more in favor of breaking these counterproductive cycles and putting up a truly progressive candidate next year. 

  

Occupy

Express Buss

Another Memorial Day

Fwd: Hewlett Style

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Paul R. Weeks <prweeks@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, May 3, 2011 at 6:49 PM
Subject: Hewlett Style

I saw this outside the Museum of the American Indian downtown & immediately reminded me of Jamie Hewlett..