Well, John McCain looks to be the inevitable Republican nominee, and I don’t really want to talk about it…. Much.Here’s a strategic quandary; which is worse: A Democrat president who implements ruinous left-wing policy, or a Republican president who does pretty much the same and destroys his party in the process?
Clearly, both Hillary and Obama want to raise taxes. Yes, on “the rich”, but newsflash, dear reader: those are the worst taxes to raise. Howl all you want, but when you change tax rates on people earning about $50 grand a year, pretty much the only thing you change is the number of dollars they pay. When you change tax rates on people earning $250,000 per year, you’re fucking with people who actually make decisions based on the tax rates. “Should I invest?” “Should I start a small business?” “Should I expand my business?”
The phrase “the rich” is class-warfare code-speak for “the leaders who take the initiative and drive our economy.”
By and large, that’s why they’re rich; they earned it. If our economy is like a building, then screwing with tax rates on the non-rich is like kicking the bricks. Raising taxes on “the rich”, though, is like knocking the keystone out of the archway.
But John McCain opposed Bush’s tax cuts, and he’s indicated that he’d raise taxes on “the rich” again. (Maybe he’s said something different more recently; I can’t keep track.)
Where’s the difference?
Clearly, both Hillary and Obama would appoint left-wing federal judges, who prefer to create case law on the fly rather than adhere to the limitations imposed on the US Government by that dusty old relic, the US Constitution. But John McCain just last week called Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito “too conservative.”
Does anybody believe that McCain, in his shameless self-prostitution to fawning media coverage, wouldn’t appoint a “moderate”?
Last time a “moderate” Republican president appointed a “moderate” SCOTUS Justice, we got Souter….
Where’s the difference?
I don’t even want to think about what McCain would do to “solve the healthcare crisis.” Clearly, both Hillary and Obama would like to implement a single-payer system, which, as anybody who’s worked on the financial side of health care (as I have) can tell you (as I am), will plainly and directly lead to fewer health care providers and less availability of care. Which in turn leads to nationalization of the providers, which ultimately results in the decay of the entire system as well as dire financial straits for the payer (the US Government), to whom all the bills are sent. Now, while I haven’t yet heard him introduce a plan for socialized medicine, is there any real doubt that John McCain’s simple-minded, short-sighted pragmatism would compel him to sign into law whatever hair-brained, entitlement-creating legislation the Democrat congress sent him?
Where’s the difference?
About the only solid distinguishing factor between McCain and either of the Beavermuppets he might face in the general election is McCain’s commitment to successful ongoing prosecution of the war against terror. But if the nation is decaying from the inside out, then the goings-on in the terror-friendly world overseas are the least of our concern.
But I don’t really want to talk about it.
I finally broke down and bought “The Departed” soundtrack today, and I can’t get past track 1, the Roger Waters / Van Morrison / The Band remake of “Comfortably Numb.”
Which reminds me: Roger Waters is going to be at Coachella this year! And with any luck, I’ll be backstage.
Don’t be jealous.
In other news, Valentine’s Day is Thursday, and I truly wish you and yours a happy, romantic, and pleasurably copulatory day. Whether “yours” is animal, vegetable, or mineral.
At present, mine happens to be “mineral”; this year I am single for the sacred holiday yet again. I’m not completely sure how this always happens, but I think it relates to my tendency to find love in the hot days of summer, and then pitch it to the curb when the relationship starts to show stress cracks as the winter holiday season approaches.
Don’t cry for me, Argentina.
All things considered, it’s just another gift that I don’t have to buy. Which is good news, since I have the worst memory for dates. Even the ones that Hallmark all but calls you to remind you about.
I would go to the Abbey and get hammered with the rest of the sad fags who consider a February 14th hookup “a date for Valentine’s Day”, but I gave up drinking for 60 days as part of my New Year’s resolution, so that’s out.
I would go to Lucha VaVoom with the downtown crew… but I gave up drinking for 60 days as part of my New Year’s resolution, so that’s out. (If you’ve ever been to Lucha, you know that inebriation is not optional.)
I would open a bottle of Stags Leap Cabernet and relax at home while watching Elizabethtown, but…
You get the idea.
I’ll probably spend it like most other Thursday evenings since December 31st: getting home, doing gym laundry, checking my mypartner.com inbox, wondering why the men on mypartner.com aren’t hotter, browsing through profiles of shirtless men on myspace, wondering why the men on myspace are all such sluts, reassuring myself that the answer lies in a maddeningly frustrating tradeoff, brushing my teeth, washing my face, and going to bed around 10h00.
Thank God Monday is President’s Day.
I’ll have time in my busy schedule to write a better article next week.
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