Thanksgiving should be cancelled - the GOPs will turkeys
Posted on Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 09:10 AM
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| Republican presidential hopefuls - wild turkeys |
Venturing upon thin ice again for the hell of it, can I quietly suggest that ye should cancel the Thanksgiving season altogether this year.
I know it is your biggest holiday and all that, but these are sharply different times and, from where I sit, you have all been in the thrall of a dreadful flock of wild turkeys for the last six months at least. With worse to come.
My concern, as always, is that America still has such a huge impact on the so-called free world of which I am a worried citizen nowadays. Accordingly, the man who leads your great nation, and the decisions he makes in office, will certainly affect me and mine in Ireland into the foreseeable and frightening future.
I look into my (Waterford) crystal ball and, yes, ye should cancel Thanksgiving.
Money in the pocket and a secure job are two factors that dominate the undercurrents of about all elections everywhere. We are in dire straits over here and it looks as if ye are not much better off over there.
The Obama years have not been golden ones by any means. Oratic Obama slid smoothly into power on the promise of a sable kind of Camelot. But it has become Camelost.
Your sovereign debt is astronomical, and on that basis and all the evidence to date, Obama will be remembered as a one-term president who will be comprehensively shafted by his discontented people next year. His days are numbered.
And what is most frightening of all, since the Republicans will provide the next president for sure, is the caliber of his successor. The selection process is now in train, the mad wild turkeys are gobbling in the roost day and night.
On the evidence of their performances to date you all should be quaking in your boots.
It is incredible that such a mighty and intelligent nation as yours cannot produce a higher quality of candidate than the inadequates contesting the Republican nomination these days and nights.
I thought Sarah Palin was laughably limited. But dammit, most of this lot surpasses her on about every front.
You seem to have a choice between a B movie cowboy from Texas, an alleged serial groper, a politician who changes positions as often as one of your quarterbacks, a client in favor of legalizing heroin and prostitution, a lady who makes Palin look like a liberal, and a couple of cute operators who seem to be able to stay near the top of the polls because of their capacity to raise millions in funding rather than
any political acumen they possess.
And that is a scanty commodity as revealed by the few debates I've seen so far.
It seems to be a fundamental requirement for the Republican candidates to have visited Israel over the last few months (most of them have), presumably to hold their corner of the powerful Jewish vote, to be able to raise those millions of campaign funds, to be anti-taxation of any kind, and above all, to be gloriously ignorant of world politics despite that mandatory weekend in Israel.
The Texan cowboy Perry, a cruelly accurate caricature of a Bush, is so limited that he dramatically forgets his lines on TV and occasionally appears totally demented.
The 999 character Cain is magnificently articulate when dismissing allegations of sexual harassment, but lapses into an amazing silence when asked to comment on the Libyan situation.
None of the contenders bear even a token resemblance to a president that America could be proud of. Yet, despite all the flung dirt, Mitt Romney and Cain are tussling at the top of the roost at the time of writing.
My crystal ball says the man to watch at the end of what is a tragi-comedy so far is the wily enough Newt Gingrich. He is one of Shakespeare's fat sleek-headed men that sleep at night and cannily plot by day. He won't be far off the nomination at the end of all the gobbling.
But there are grounds for great apprehension here for all Americans because, during the debates, both himself and Romney clarified that they are itching to go to war with Iran. It looked as if they are so hawkish they would declare that war on inauguration day!
Are there not enough messy wars without clear decisions draining America's strained resources already?
And, just like Afghanistan, a war in Iran can never be clearly or cleanly won.
Cancel Thanksgiving I say. This is the year of the Wild Turkeys.
15 comments
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peterson | Nov 27, 2011, 12:53 PM EST
Any one of the GOP candidates would be a major improvement to the leadership of the USA. obumma has been a total disaster and so has his wife.
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jamieLM | Nov 27, 2011, 11:49 AM EST
Cancel Thanksgiving because of politics? You must be joking. In my family, Thanksgiving is a day for giving thanks to God for our many blessings, not a day to debate politics. My immediate and extended family had a day of fun, laughter, sharing family news, reminiscing, and just enjoying being together. The only "debate" centered around everyone's favorite college and pro football teams and their upcoming bowl prospects. No doom and gloom allowed on this or any other Am. holiday for us. For generations, my Irish-Am. family has survived countless terms of Congressmen and Presidents and we plan on surviving no matter who is elected or relected to Congress and the Presidency. The Pres. doesn't enact legislation - the Congress does. The election is a year away and no one can be 100% certain of who will be elected to any office. My family are all proud Americans who, in spite of our country's troubles, don't want to live anywhere else but here. The only turkey we're concerned about on Thanksgiving Day is the one that's roasted, carved, put on a platter, and set on the table to eat. (:))
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Springfield9 | Nov 25, 2011, 10:00 AM EST
You're right - a pack of buck eejits!
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joycean | Nov 25, 2011, 09:34 AM EST
Cormac, Whoever is elected the next US President will be President of this country, NOT the world. The world was all together too quick to award Obama the Nobel Peace prize last time around. He(or she) will not be your president, and Americans will not be voting with you or the world in mind. Your jibe about Rebublicans visiting Isreal betrays Irish Anti-Semitism. What you don't seem to realize is that Ireland and Israel are identical in having diasporas in this country that make them important politically. The difference is that Israel is a strong, nuclear-armed American military partner which has twice already taken out Iran's nuclear weapons and may again. If an independent Palestine comes into being, it will never be an American ally, just another troublesome Middle Eastern hot spot. Yet both Israel and the US realize that a just solution must come into being.
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Towngate | Nov 25, 2011, 05:55 AM EST
Heavy Duty stuff, Cormac ~ and all the better for it! > > > If America ever gets any sense, you will miss watching those planeloads of brave soldiers taking off and landing at Shammon Airport on their murderous missions in the East. > > > The USA tormented and threathened World would like a 'Thanksgiving for Peace Day'.
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Searlit | Nov 24, 2011, 10:31 PM EST
Yes it was a depressing article. I was actually enjoying it up until the seventh paragraph. I thought you waited to give your predictions until after Christmas, Cormac. Oh well, I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving, anyway.
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Ernesider | Nov 24, 2011, 02:04 PM EST
Good man Cormac. You couldn't have put it any better or clearer. However, I think Barak was and continues to be a Wall Streeter so he'll probably get a second term. There has to be a few decent men and women somewhere.
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joycean | Nov 24, 2011, 01:07 PM EST
Cormac,Thnaksgiving is not a political holiday to compare and contrast Presidential candidates. It is a time to thank God for our blessings. The Pilgrims had lost half of their original number when they found enough good to be thankful for. Today is a beautiful sunny day. we have a fat turkey and plenty of food. God is good.
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McNamara31 | Nov 24, 2011, 12:11 PM EST
irishman6… In all honesty, I ask you this one question....What do you "truly" think Fox News would have done to JFK if it had existed? In a Fox environment Kennedy would "never" have been elected. He would have been so demeaned and vilified, and his Catholic faith would have been smeared to such an extent Kennedy, would have been left unelectable. And also I find it historically interesting that the present chief of FOX News (Roger Ailes) was handpicked way back then by Nixon to help his campaign.
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irishman6 | Nov 24, 2011, 11:53 AM EST
Good job Cormac. Most Americans are to self centered to see things with the clear view of an outsider. I am embarrassed about the lack of quality of our political leaders who continure to prove they know nothing of what is going on in the world.
What we are stuck with is someone like Obama who is a very good speaker but it ends there and he continues to show his ignorance and disrespect to America and countries around the world.
What America need right now is another JFK!! He was the last President which America could be proud of and stand with.
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patrickesq | Nov 24, 2011, 11:03 AM EST
I agree 100% with what McNamara has stated so well. Our political system is close to broken due in large part to the corrupting influence of Big money. Even after they are elected our Congressional reps spend half their time raising money from people and corporations that want them to protect and promote their narrow interests. The present crop of Republican candidates have to almost uniformly spout the party line of right wing conservatives so they can get the nomination to become the leader of all Americans. What a mockery of appealing to our common good. At least President Bush gave lip service to uniting the diverse interests in America when he did his campaigning.
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JohnKinMD | Nov 24, 2011, 10:10 AM EST
Just plain Bull S#it.
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McNamara31 | Nov 24, 2011, 10:09 AM EST
Cormac...All you have stated is very true and extremely depressing. Our once great country that the Irish fled to for the “American Dream” is being dismantled by the powers of overt greed and the pathetic candidates who do their business for them. Our country has been further divided by the islands of information that have replaced an also once great journalistic community in the states. It is common practice now for news sources like FOX to overtly distort the news 24/7 reporting only those stories that suit their narrative while convincing half of America that the sitting president is not one of them and has a hidden agenda to destroy America. And when did it also become OK for this same news corporation to create, manipulate and give free exposure to a slew of their “potential candidates” for all to see? Again who are these candidates really supporting? And finally there’s the money that is corrupting both sides. It is projected that the next American president will have to spend one billion dollars to be elected/re elected. And it is documented that between 1998 and 2008 Wall St and the financial lobbies spent 5 billion dollars to buy all the deregulation they wanted. Our only hope is to generate candidates driven to “get the money out” of our bought and sold corporate run American political system and return the vote truly to the people.
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Deidra47 | Nov 24, 2011, 09:46 AM EST
Got to get your own country and politicians in line before you point fingers at mine.
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