Wow, I sure have changed a lot over the last three years since I wrote this post in which I said I generally agree with Al Franken's politics. I have an idea that if I had taken the time to think about what I was saying, I would not have said that, but certainly I've grown even more conservative since that time.
I still, though, wouldn't mind seeing Al as President. What I really would like to see is just him running for President. Can you imagine John McCain running for re-election at the age of seventy-six against Al Franken. Franken would push McCain's buttons in a way guaranteed to cause an eruption of that vaunted temper.
Well, if Franken wins his race this year in Minnesota against incumbent Norm Coleman, whose seat is considered vulnerable, then he would have been in the Senate four years by the time the 2012 presidential election comes around. He would have to be considered a potential vice-presidential running mate at least, if not actually head the top of the ticket. Can anybody think of a better attack dog than Franken as VP running mate?
I wouldn't really like to see him as President now, but by the same token, it would still be cool to see him give that preview of his first State of The Union Address on Saturday Night Live.
Of course, he has his work cut out for him. A lot of people in Minnesota consider him too controversial to win a general election, and though Coleman is vulnerable, he is still the slight favorite as of now. A lot of people are concerned about Franken's ability to interact with Senators whom he has attacked in the past. And then there's the matter of some of his bawdier humor, such as a past Playboy article which detailed some kind of sexual activity with robots.
Therefore, to reassure voters, Franken is trying to do something he's just not used to doing-act dignified and respectful. I guess he figures the funny stuff can come later.
4 comments:
I don't know- are you more conservative now, or just more anti-liberal? I really don't know what your convictions are on most issues, but I generally know what people and ideas piss you off!
I'm still pretty liberal in a lot of ways, but very conservative in others, and consider myself independent. Where I guess I've gotten more conservative is mainly in my view that the government, while necessary, tends to be inefficient and intrusive with the more power it is given. After so long it even becomes oppressive, and after it establishes itself in any given area, it tends to become so entrenched it becomes exponentially harder to moderate its excesses.
I think party politics has led us down the road where it's almost ruined us. The only good thing about the party system is, if there has to be one, it's good that there can be at least one more to balance out the excesses and corruption.
Otherwise, the country would be better off without them. I honestly believe they are best described as criminal conspiracies devoted to the acquiring and maintaining of power at all costs.
When John Edwards used to make his speeches complaining about the reality of "Two Americas", I could understand where he was coming from, though I see those two Americas not so much as the haves and have-nots as the Democrats versus the Republicans.
That's basically what we have here. Two political parties made up of people who see themselves more as loyal members of the Democratic or Republican Party than as Americans.
What it has led to is a kind of civil war fought out every four years at the ballot box, and never ending political campaigns throughout all the years in between.
In the meantime, it has led to all kinds of unnatural alliances. Without parties, elected representatives could go about solving problems in the most appropriate manner. Sometimes that might mean a more liberal approach, sometimes a conservative one, sometimes somewhere in between. There would still be debate over the best approach, but the different sides would not be so entrenched and unreasonable.
Of course, that will never happen, because these parties are so entrenched we will never get rid of them.
But, in the meantime, a conservative approach to government does at least tend to moderate their excesses, at least to a point, provided no one side becomes too powerful.
It's likely Jesse The Body is in the race as well.
Ren-Is that right? I wonder who he would pull the most votes from, Coleman or Franken. Probably from Franken. He might pull enough votes from both parties and independents to actually win, though I doubt it. I guess it all depends on how much support he's got to work with to start out with.
One thing I'm almost totally sure of, if he has any kind of appreciable support at all, he will kill Franken.
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