IN comments to the post below
Giraffe writes “I assume you support Romney”
Giraffe has a history here of serially not getting it and making assumptions. So for him, and for anyone out there who hasn’t figured it out yet, let me make it, as old Dick said, perfectly clear.
I support Freedom. I support as much freedom as possible for as many people as possible. I’m not stupid, I know that freedom, it’s a pricey thing, and we may not be able to afford it for everyone. And yet it is my goal.
To make the assumption that there ever has been or ever will be a single candidate or party or group that is capable of providing that freedom is ludicrous; to wait for the “Right person” to come along so you can vote for them is ignorant and insane, and to stay home in droves in a fit of pique is… well, it’s just not me.
Politics is a game of adults and children. A segment of the population has chosen the Government as the adults, and themselves as the children- and they are wrong to do so, of course, because Government hasn’t got the sense God gave cheese. And these people are not “them” they are, for the most part, us. Only mindset separates the sane from the insane, and nowhere is it more obvious than in Politics.
A game. A lot of people say that, but few of them know what it means. It means the politicians, far from being our masters, are our gamepieces. Tools we must use and control to gain an edge. Chesspieces on a chessboard, used to our advantage. Sometimes they are good pieces, with good moves, sometimes they are just pawns. But not to choose is to forfeit. If that’s what you want, that’s fine, but I have a few things vested in this Great Nation, and I’d like very much for it to thrive.
In the R primaries we had bad choices, because people worthwhile won’t run. Do you blame them? They get a smackdown from their opponents, they get ignored by the people who are supposed to be their base, and they are anally probed and raped by the press. Jesus Christ wouldn’t run for the R nomination in this country. So until the people who vote R are willing to get off their halfmoons, find a candidate worth voting for, and support him or her, and horsewhip all the character asassins in the press, we’re gonna get choices like Dole, McCain, Romney. That’s just a fact, like it or not.
The game is incrementalism,attrition and choice- and the choices, while for the most part, are horrible, they are clear. At each turning, you look at A or B, and say “Which one is more likely to do harm, and which is more likely to do good? Sometimes the choice isn’t that good, sometimes all you get is “which one will fuck this up the least”. Too many people look on this as some beauty contest, where the candidate has to meet their exact specifications or fuck off. I could give a shit about the candidates, and pretty much never have. I only care about whether they can ratchet back the progress the progressives have made (They are very good at playing this game, and most normal people don’t even know it IS one) or at least put a stake in the ground for a while until someone better suited comes along.
So here we are at the chessboard. Politics is just the game we play, win or lose. The stakes are freedom. And the fat lady hasnt sung yet, but it looks like this time we get to go to war with the mittens we have.
22 comments Og | Uncategorized
Let us assume Romney wins, what is the next step in your plan? This is the point I was attempting to make at Professor Hale’s blog–Romney supports/ignores many of the things Obama does: Gitmo, police brutality, prison rape, the use of drones, etc. How are you going to deal with these things once Romney is elected? Surely your plan is not simply voting.
In your previous post you made it sound like people who do not vote are doing nothing. I do not plan on voting but I am active. I am learning the skills I need to know in order to survive in a filthy economy and I am sharing those with others. I have already had the talk with neighbors. But supposedly I am doing nothing.
Never in the history of this blog has anyone missed the point of the post with more thoroughness and efficiency.
I’m cool with your “best of the least” program, Og, but leave the puns to someone who can deliver one.
I would have said, “this time we get to do brain surgery on this dying patient of a culture while wearing mittens.”
Sigh. Og, you could explain it in detail and depth and still most people would not understand. It’s too alien to their accustomed way of thinking.
Dog, there are no puns, youre seeing things.
I keep noticing “freedom” used where I think they correct term is “liberty.” Liberty is much more important to me anyway. Pratchett’s distinction has always suck with me. Via Lord Vetinari, of course. In Going Postal he says something along the lines of:
Freedom is easy, we all make choices every day. Liberty is measured in the quantity and quality of the options you have to choose from.
This scene is beautifully played out a couple times while free people are looking over a bottomless shaft as one of their two choices.
Dammit. Stuck. Has always stuck with me…
Thats just semantics, really, you know what im talking about.
“Sometimes the choice isn’t that good, sometimes all you get is “which one will fuck this up the leastâ€.”. That pretty much sums up my opinion of nearly every election since I came of age to vote. Luckily it only takes one hand to vote, since my other hand is usually holding my nose.
Hold you nose indeed. But remember the goal is not to get X elected, but to do everything possible to protect our freedoms.
When people see that their choice is “who do I want most to vote against,” they don’t realize they still have a choice. Maybe you have made it clearer. Not sure.
The thing is, in 2008 some on our side made the choice to let the Left take over so as to hasten the demise to where we have to start over again at the redline. I’m pretty sure you know that.
The question is now: do they still think that way? I don’t and never will.
As for the non-Right: Some who voted for Bummer now understand and he’s lost them. Hence his need cheat and water down their votes. And Holder is seeking to block the efforts to prevent that in every state where honest people live. And our press is enabling that in the manner that Jimmah Carter has done in all those 3rd world elections for whose “integrity” he has “verified.” So the number who vote against Obama had better be BIG. Zimbabweans voted against Mugabe in huge numbers — and he’s still there. (Thanks Jimmah.)
I like your reference to the stake in the ground. You may have gotten that image from the cartoon that I’ve told you about that my cartoonist never drew. The problem is the
RINOsSKUNCs have been pulling up the Right most stakes on our ideological corral and have been attempting to drag all of our society to the Left for many decades now, as they chase behind where the radical Left wants to take us. They do it by not fighting; by “compromising” with radicals who, in turn, have learned there is no notion so far out they can’t find members of the “opposition” who will go along.Mittens (Bumney) has been and is one of those compromisers who has pulled up a few of our stakes, but at least he’s not the radical Leftist that is Bummer. So there is that lag. He will not go along with every wild notion, but he will compromise with them in order to appease the calls for “bipartisanship.” Too bad we normal (for the most part) people are considered outliers, so our views somehow NEVER show up in those bipartisan talks. (I guess that means we need at least tripartisan talks; but I digress.)
So voting against Bummer buys us some time. Heh. Maybe. But tell me Og: Why do I fear we won’t make use of that time?
Furthermore, expect little more from Bumney. Yes he may put a stake in the ground. It will be far from where we’d like to go back to. That because of the debt. There is the $16 trillion in debt the press acknowledges (out of the $150 trillions in debt — if they don’t find a way to kill off a large body of people off instead). Heh.
Yes we need a better player, but people like Bumney (as did Bush before him) will make that difficult. The R party want the Right’s vote, but they don’t want us to be heard. “You are to be seen, but not heard.” Yeah, children Og. That’s our remains our intended role even by our guy.
Yes, that is the other thing to never forget: We know that he isn’t “mittens” when he and his bunch makes such demands on the Right to shut up and get out of the way. But vote for him please nevertheless. No I will vote against the other Bum and then pray like I have never prayed before.
not our guy, “our guy.”
“…politicians, far from being our masters,are our gamepieces. Tools we must use and control to gain an edge. Chesspieces on a chessboard, used to our advantage. Sometimes they are good pieces, with good moves, sometimes they are just pawns. But not to choose is to forfeit…”
This is the take-away message. Too often, we see politicians as our opponents when they really are the game pieces. When you don’t use your pieces, or worse, let your opponents use your pieces, you’ll lose every time.
+1 on Slash’s comment! They DO consider it a game, and they profit from it!
All this to explain that voters are saying something when they vote against the worst puppet.
The vote then becomes the subjects’ way of telling the games players (Codevilla’s Ruling Class) that they don’t approve of radical changes.
The good news: It looks like that includes so many Americans that Bummer and Eric Holder, with the aid of the Agency of Lies, are demonizing election roll cleanups.
For me the issue is pretty simple:
– Either Romney or Obama will be president for the next four years. Period. Full stop. Ron Paul isn’t going to get elected, nor is any other third party.
– Even IF you think there’s no difference between Romney and Obama (and if you do I suspect you’re not paying attention), there’s still the party issue. With gains made in Congress by the Tea Party (and may those gains increase this year), we’re more likely to see pro-freedom legislation reach the big desk. Laws Obama would probably veto, but Romney would sign because they came from legislators in his party.
– for the same reason, Romney is unlikely to bypass the legislative process via executive order. He knows it’s unpopular with the voters, and pissed off voters tend to take it out on the party even if the person they’re pissed off at isn’t running for re-election.
– if nothing else, electing Romney means getting rid of Eric We-can-prosecute-these-people-for-breaking-the-law-because-they-supported-us-in-getting-elected Holder. IMHO Holder should, at best, be jailed for his actions in Panthergate and Fast-and-Furious, at worse he should be given a fair trial and a prompt hanging.
While Romney isn’t my ideal candidate, and the electoral votes for my state (NJ) will be going to Obama no matter what (electoral fraud was practically invented in NJ), I’m still going to hold my nose and pull for Romney.
I think I get your point Og.
We interrupt this thread for the following announcement.
You won.
That is all. We return this thread to its original, upright position.
I know what you mean Og. And “liberty” does have some connotations today that are often not worth the effort to get through before the rest of the discussion can get rolling.
But, dammit, words mean things. I hate seeing these two very important ones weakened.
Well, Romeny can only do good if we kick all the dems out of the senate.
I think Mexico might give us an out on the pilice state though. I hear they are going to disband the group reponsible for keeping the drugs out of the USA. He said it is not working and I think they will legalize it and tax it. Gonna make it pretty hard for us to keep it illegal.
Anyway, I understand the post and I will vote. I have always voted against democrats as they are avowed crooks. So are republicans, they just don’t want to kill the goose.
While there is an element of samness-ish-ism between the two title candidates, that’s not really the choice at hand.
Neither of them, as an individual, can dictatorially yank the country hither and yon without limits, no matter how badly the present occupant strives to do so.
What the real issue is, is the ripple effect which eminates outward from that big desk. Appointments at all levels, both with Senatorial confirmation, and those of lesser office.
The President can tell the EPA to tighten or loosen the reins, and they do so. Same with BATFE, FDA, and countless other endless bureaucracies.
What the Donks have done with their limitless seizures of State lands, declaring such to be “wildernesses” and the like, is another click of the ratchet. Autocrats like Salizar strangle the drilling industry, while also funneling taxpayer dollars into pre-planned failures such as Solyndra, etc.
No need to recount Holder’s sins here, we’re all too painfully aware of that traitor’s perfidy.
This long train of offenses is what any given (D) slithers into any given office with, as their ongoing agenda.
The only chance to stop the clicking of the ratchet is to get our guys in. Even as a holding action, it IS BETTER than letting the pawl click over the wheel, faster and ever faster.
Given enough Alan Wests, Paul Ryans and (we’ll see, won’t we?) Ted Cruz types into Congress, and we might even click the wheel back a few notches in our direction.
If we do, and do so while continuing to hammer against the MSM with truth, punchbacks and the weight of our own well reasoned, well documented and well presented arguments, then we can begin to turn the tide.
Took the progs about 90 some odd years to get here. Maybe we can turn it back in a fraction of that time, but it’s still gonna be a 20 or 30 year, transgenerational fraction.
From those obstensively “on our side”, the failure to vote, given those parameters, just doesn’t strike me as helpful.
In fact, the default is of itself, harmful, and in sufficent numbers, is tantamount to aid to the enemy.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Outstanding!!!! Too bad so many just don’t get it or are to busy looking for navel lint to get involved!
I think I understand. I’m not voting for equality, I leave that to my Leftist brothers and my Stalinist Sisters-in-Law. I am voting for liberty. I always did, but for the first three presidential elections I voted in, I was fuzzy on my definition. No more. I will vote for the least-totalitarian candidate I can who is likely to win. In every election at every level. I figure the east-coast elites spend too much money trying to convince people voting doesn’t help, so I’m out there every damn election pushing the participation percentages up. I figure it costs them money to buy apathy and if more people vote. . .