(Long Island, NY) Political writing has gotten boring again. I’ve spent the better part of this year going on and on about it, and now that Obama has won the whole exercise is almost pointless. John McCain, AKA the soon-to-be runner up, doesn’t stand a chance against Obama. It’s a foregone conclusion in my mind.
Now that Obama has the nomination sewn up, it seems the knives are coming out against Hillary Clinton. A June 9th editorial by Celeste Katz takes Clinton to task for spending $212 million on the failed presidential bid. The article is quite entertaining, but I’m afraid my esteemed colleague missed the point on this one. Yes, Hillary Clinton spent an excessive amount of money in an attempt to secure her place in the big race. But how much does Celeste Katz think McCain, Obama, and the rest of these people have shelled out?
Let’s be conservative for a moment and say each candidate–Hillary Clinton included–only spent $100 million each. The amount of money is still mind boggling. Especially when you consider that you could divide up that amount into very small chunks and distribute it to underfunded schools or hungry children–not on foreign shores, but right here at home.
Ahh, the simple solutions. Give the money to the poor. Make the government pay for the election process. Have the FCC require all networks to DONATE ad time for the campaign or lose their permission to pollute the airwaves with slop, political or otherwise.
What’s wrong with our country? Take a look. Recent statistics claim that one in four New Yorkers has herpes. Hillary spent almost a quarter of a billion dollars trying to out-maneuver Obama. People are still buying books written by guys involved in pro wrestling.
Worst of all, some preacher someplace whoops and hollers about all these things in much the same way I am in print, except the preacher will blame it all on a decline in morals. That’s what these great thinkers truly believe is responsible for our sorry state. Not me. I personally think morals have been about the same as they’ve always have. It’s more about our collective short-sightedness. That’s the real trouble behind both Hillary’s staggering expenditures and writer Celeste Katz’s myopia over those expenditures.
Everybody complains about George Bush, the war in Iraq, and the price of gas. But I seem to remember Bush winning by a large margin. What does this say about us? We voted our problems into office TWICE. We got the government we deserve. Just as we have the gas prices we deserve. I remember in the 1970s, all kinds of scary rhetoric was flying about over gasoline, about fossil fuels and rising demands. We were all warned decades ago that we’d face problems just like this if we didn’t seriously explore our alternative energy options.
We have the prices we deserve.
What would make a difference in all this? Not much in the way of campaigns or public relations gimmicks. The real difference would come if there was simply a wave of people who decided to quit buying gasoline, stop driving cars, wasting money on trivialities. Not that I think that’s going to happen. There are too many people driving back and forth from the Hamptons, purchasing McMansions and whining about getting “bad tables” for any sort of revolution of that nature. Not in MY lifetime. No siree.
To Celeste Katz, the commentator who complained about Hillary Clinton’s expenditures, I can only say, “Bigger picture, please.” Not that it’s really HER fault, her editor probably goaded her into writing that one. To my fellow complainers, I humbly request you follow my lead and drive your cars about three times a month, start reading Vonnegut, and realize that its all pretty pointless, but maybe by being nice to each other we can sit aboard the deck of this sinking ship we’re on, sip a cocktail or two and enjoy the view.
So, yes. Hillary Clinton spent hundreds of millions on what was ultimately a failure. It was money that could have been better spent on health insurance for the poor or for urban improvement projects. But our system–the one that creates a need for such expenditures in the first place–is probably a more appropriate place to start fixing the blame.
After all, that $212 mil was just for the FIRST part of this contest. How much money gets flushed down the toilet for the rest? Sorry, you kids in that overcrowded classroom with ratty old, out-of-date textbooks…you’ll just have to sit and spin. Those millions are already earmarked for what Frank Zappa called “The Olympics of Banality”, also known as the United States Presidential Election.
Oh, by the way–no matter WHO we elect, this time next year I predict gas prices will be just as ugly as they are now, if not worse. We deserve it.
