Partly because I'm Canadian and unlike President's Day, Memorial Day, the 4th of July and American Thanksgiving which I'm used to, Cinquo de Mayo just appeared full blown out of the blue one day when a Mariachi band came to play on the big cafeteria patio outside my office window. Maybe it's a west coast thing or maybe it really is a new celebration but whatever it is I do enjoy the concept. What I like even better though is 'The Day of the Dead' with all the little skeleton images.. skeleton weddings, skeletons dining, skeletons at school and skeletons dancing around in graveyards. The 'Day' arrives every year on November 1st - after Hallowe'en and before the traditional Election Day.
A couple of things are becoming very apparent to me but maybe I'm just being weird and you can correct my perception if you like. You see it appears to me that the next President is never pictured or spoken of. We don't know who will be our glorious leader two years from now because they haven't been formally introduced. 'What is she talking about?' you may well ask. Let me briefly explain.
I think Barack Obama's just about done. Like it or not Reverend Wright has done him wrong (it almost looks deliberate) and I don't think there'll be a remarkable recovery. There's a subliminal racism extant in this country that the press enjoys tickling. People are just too damn depressed to get too hopeful anyway and if you look around there's not a lot to be done in the short term. Once the front of the train has hit a brick wall at speed what will happen to the back end is inevitable.
Hillary Clinton is not the last great hope of female emancipation. Her candidacy has no solid roots in firm ground and once she realized she was in the swamp up to her neck the only thing she found to do was to sling mud as far as she or her 'advisors' could pitch. It wasn't far.. only as far as the shoes of her Democratic opponent. Plus, she carries the burden of Bill Clinton's less than exemplary presidential history.
Last, we have John McCain. He won't allow his medical records to be released for review to a friendly press. Cancer, heart attack? Oh yes, but those are relatively common knowledge and although we have no way of knowing his medical prognosis, the man doesn't look well nor does he sound sane.
Nevertheless, I think he'll win the election both because the media refuse to criticize him and his lame ideas and because the Democratic Party just can't get their act together. We don't know who his vice president will be. What we do know is that Dick Cheney has revolutionized the position. So the unknown VP will be the power (Huckabee ?... oh no, please no). That person is likely to inherit the main job sooner or later. That's what I was thinking. Please tell me I'm wrong.
"It's a dead man's party. Who could ask for more? Everybody come and leave your bodies at the door. Leave your bodies and souls at the door. Don't look away. It's only me."
You're right. We are in such a political pickle. With a failing economy, a wounded military and two wars, I wonder when this country was last this vulnerable to failure.
ReplyDeleteThis is a terrible time for such political uncertainty, too. What a mess.
I think I'm getting appendicitis just think about it. This is a colossal pain in the... gut.
ReplyDeletedcup - Hmm.. I was hoping for something more hopeful from you. When somebody has broken a big jar of honey on the kitchen floor we just can't tiptoe around the mess when we find it. Nor can we ignore it and hope somebody else will clean it up for us. Nor is it a good reason to move out of a perfectly good house. We just have to roll up our sleeves and get on with the job. I know you're good at that.
ReplyDeleteutahs - Nice to see you. Please see above answer to dcup. Everything will be okay but it won't happen the way we might like to imagine. Nothing ever does.
Very interesting post. I do agree with you that if we want to make things better, we all have to just quit whining and get to work. But I don't have much hope that anything will be accomplished because there are too few of Us and too many of the Big Corporate types who just want to add to their own billions by screwing Us over. But that doesn't mean we should stop trying and fighting!
ReplyDeleteThe previous post made up a great story complete with your wonderful drawings. In respect to this post I agree candidates arn't setting the house on fire, as I think they are all in dire need of a dose of Churchillian oratory; that is to be frank about the task ahead.
ReplyDeleteYou don’t seem to be able to capture the essence of any of the candidates; it all seems to be pure politics. And no costing are ever presented to underlie promises and future policy! You wouldn’t get away with that elsewhere.
Best wishes
You almost make me want to give up on the twisted joys of the Day of the Dead and Halloween and other related things of a macabre nature.
ReplyDeleteIt's grotesque just how much control the media wields. No one likes any of The Maverick®'s policies, yet that's never highlighted, thus, tied or ahead with candidate who, even taking into account their flaws, are evidently better than an angry, out-of-touch old man. Now that's scary.
suzi - Thanks for dropping by. It's not a rant up to your high standards but there are many more of US. They are few and nasty and think they can control the world with money. Time will tell.
ReplyDeletelindsay - I'm glad you enjoyed the story and I'm a bit sorry I spoiled its impact by posting this depressing piece but what's done is done. They just make me so angry. What's missing so much isn't Churchillian oratory but Statemanship.
randal - The Republican ideology is based (because it's worked in the last 2 presidential contests) is to sit back and let the press tear apart the Democratic candidates. Then they go for the current year's version of ballot box stuffing or, if that doesn't do the trick, they count on the Supreme Court.
Don't ever give up on Hallowe'en. We're gonna need it more than ever. Remember 'V for Vendetta'
Even with all the spin etc. I think Obama's going to win.
ReplyDeleteIt's the marathon, not the 100 yard dash... and McCain just won't keep up.
Either way, the Empire has to be let down, gently I hope.
McCain personally (and TV has a lot to do with this) comes off as a different person from Bush. The fact that those differences include "worse husband" and "more insane" kinda gets lost in the fine print. So he does have an advantage. As for Obama, I'm hoping that his weathering the Wright kerfuffle and winning the more recent primaries shows that he's got staying power. Of course hope is a tenuous thing.
ReplyDeleteBut I really like your "Dia de los Muertos" drawing. Those bones are ready to get down!
gary - I sincerely hope you're correct.
ReplyDeleteben - I opened our ballot hoping I could vote for Obama but we're non-partisan..
Glad you liked the drawing. It was a sudden inspiration.
oingo boingo cha cha cha! let's dance to that! i was in Mexico once on holiday over nov. 1. our junk-filled commercially driven Halloween pales by comparison. love the drawing... the foxy lady in the bikini brings to mind some models i've seen on pictures of haute couture (or however you spell that) runways. only yours has a few more curves.
ReplyDeletedon't discount Obama girlfriend. Hillary is on her way out but the fat lady's refusing to sing.. perhaps a communal 'me me me me meeee' at the covention will get her going.
ReplyDeleteJohn McCain has been doing his 'cool' thing by appearing on the Daily Show and Ellen although in all fairness, he's been on the Daily Show before he was considered running for President, the second time around.
Btw.. Cinco the Mayo is not just a West Coast thing but very much a Southern thang (here in TX). The day of the dead IS certainly more cool. At my son's Montessori school they celebrated it by remembering family members who had passed on. They made a booklet with empty pages and then burned it as an offering to the passed on relatives so they could 'write' their own history.
Ingrid
ingrid - We'll see what happens with the election but I'm thinking McCain is the 'chosen' candidate of the media and I'll be surprised if he doesn't win. Then again, I don't think any one person can fix this mess.
ReplyDeleteI like your story about burning the books with blank pages. It's reminiscent of the Chinese tradition of burning paper money for the ancestors.