The Hannah Montana Factor

Recently, I was making my deliveries and pondering the various situations that our side of the political isle has gotten itself into. It dawned on me that we have been taken for a ride. Granted, the following is only a theory, but I think it's a pretty good one.
The only way that the John McCain nomination makes sense is to realize that there are hidden forces at work. Actually, they're really not all that well hidden to be honest with you. You see, the media is big and powerful, but their weakness is their ego. The more power they aquire, the bigger their sense of entitlement. This sense of entitlement leads them to a false sense of moral superiority. As a result, the press commonly trades their role as news teller, for the role of news maker. With no one to stop them, the end result is, what the press wants, the press gets.
In our case, the press wants a liberal President. How to make this happen? On the Democrat side, this in not a problem. Simply give good press to the candidate of your choice. Report the good, bury the bad. But what happens if a popular conservative pops up that threatens your chosen candidate? No problem, just ignore him. Don't talk to him or about him, and he'll just go away. After all, if Fred Thompson falls in the woods, and there's nobody there to hear him, does he make a sound? No.
Now that the conservative is out of the way, you are free and clear to insert the Republican candidate that will least threaten your liberal Democrat candidate. You need someone who is popular enough to be a believeable candidate, but liberal enough to accept as a worse case scenario in the off-chance that he wins the election. Enter John McCain.
One problem though. How do you get conservatives to vote for a guy who is blatantly liberal and loves to kick the Right in the nuts? Answer: you don't. Instead, you convince the moderates, fence sitters, and undecided voters to fill in the gap. This is acheived by creating a "buzz". Using the same marketing template that created the talentless phenomenon that is "Hanna Montana", you simply tell everyone that the only way you can be cool is to get on the "McCain train". You create the illusion that everyone else has been begging for a McCain Presidency for years and that you are late to the party.
Using poles that you create, you can make a candidate look like the greatest thing since sliced bread. Couple that with the fact that you are in charge of telling the party leaders what the people think. After all, they aren't going to go among the "great unwashed" and find out if you're telling the truth.
After all is said and done, you have to give the media credit. No matter what, they will have their liberal President.

THE PARTY'S OVER

As I watch the coverage of McCain winning Florida, one thing has become crystal clear. The Republican party is in it's final death-throws. When Hillary wins the Presidency, we will all be looking back in wonder as to just how this came to pass. We will lament what we perceive as the failures of Republican campaigns, and tremble with fear for the future of this once great nation. We will point fingers of blame, and pontificate till the cows come home. Truth be told, the only ones who will have a firm grip on what happened will be those who's voices are being ignored today.
It will be the conservative who tried to tell the party to not drink from the fountain of "global warming hysteria". It will be the conservative who tried to tell the party to denounce such insanity as the McCain/Fiengold act. It will be the conservative who tried to tell the party to force the issue of illegal immigration into the debate, and fight aggressively against it. It will be the conservative who told the party to reject the premise that we are all begging for national health care. It will be the conservative who tried to tell the party to promote a candidate who represents the philosophies of our founding fathers, not panders to the masses and whims of the pollsters and media.
In the end, it will be the voice of the conservative that goes unheard. The result will be as follows. McCain will go down in defeat. Followed by four years of the destruction of our military, intelligence services, Supreme Court, right to bear arms, sanctity of marriage, millions of unborn children, health care services, economy, national sovereignty, and a laundry list of liberties.
Though it is ultimately going to be our fault as a nation for not properly educating ourselves, the purpose of having a political party is to organize people who share a similar philosophy. Without that philosophy as the rudder, the ship strays into the rocks. It is the captain and crew of that ship who are responsible for maintaining that rudder. When they fail, the rudder fails. It is high time for a mutiny.

LOOK IN THE MIRROR

As I look at todays headlines, I am continually nagged by one question: Who's fault is this? Well, if we look to our "leaders", we see a herd of conveniant scapegoats just begging to have a sea of fingers pointed at them. One party blames the other, all while competing for holy grail of media compliance.
Which party is correct in their assertions is really not that important in the grande scheme of things. At the end of the day, the real culprit responsible for most-if not all of our ills can be found in the nearest reflective suface. In other words, it's our fault.
Consider this. At no other time in history has a regular guy had so much access to so much information...for free. Twenty years ago, if a talking head told you something on the evening news, you had little choice but to accept it and assume it was the truth. This meant that we had no choice but to trust the individual reporting the news, regardless of any agenda they might be hiding. Today this is no longer the case.
Now, if somebody tells us that we have the power to control the weather with the use of compact flourescent light bulbs and crappy cars, why do we have to accept it? If someone tells us that we went to war in Iraq because we wanted to steal their oil, why do we have to accept it? If someone tells us that having a strong national border is really not that big of a deal, why do we have to accept it? If someone tells us that taking our money away in the form of higher taxes actually makes us more prosperous, why do we have to accept it?
The answer is simple...we don't. Unfortuanately, if our national poles are even remotely accurate, about one half of our population is perfectly happy with accepting whatever idea that can be packaged in a socially acceptable way. Only after the S%& hits the fan do we see the unintended consequences of not taking the time to look at the big picture.
When we cast our vote for someone, it is our duty to know what they really stand for. It is our duty to not fall for fancy packaging and slick keywords such as "change" and "hope". It is our duty to understand their policies, or if they even have any. If we buy into the hype, who can we blame but ourselves?