Politics as Usual

I’m not a huge political guy.  You will not find me hunched over a copy of radical new liberal or neocon literature, of anything on this list.  But I do stay informed.  Or at least I try.  And since this is an election year it is nigh well impossible not to be at least a little informed and somewhat up to date on the various happenings.  I have been watching the campaigns, more for entertainment that anything of substance.

The other night I got a message on my phone inviting me to the Hillary Clinton rally happening this last weekend.  I was conflicted.  Should I stay or should I go?  Hillary fan I ain’t.  But the wife and I had said after Obama was here we should at least make the attempt to see the candidates.  I mean when else do you get to see American history live and in the flesh?  Based on that we decided to go. This was not out of a rabid desire to support anyone; it was out of curiosity.   And it was close.

We get there far too early on a Saturday morning. I mean 8am on a weekend is just wrong.  I should be sleeping I grumbled as we stood in the cold Oregon spring weather.  They gray skies matched my mood, which got even worse as I saw the line.  Here’s a picture to see at least what I could capture of it.

There’s a NOFX song, “The Longest Line” that says, “At the end of the longest line, that’s where were I will always be.”  Yeah, me too.  This line stretched behind me, around the perimeter of the parking lot ten in front of me around the building.  All waiting to see Hillary.  I made a valiant effort not to making “mooooo” or “baaaaaa” noises. The wife would have slapped me if I did, and I’m not a fan of public violence.  Anyways, off around the building and we had these wonderful guys.

As we got closer there were more “protesters.”   The truth was that it was cold and early.  And George Bush set-up the 9/11 attacks.  Really?  have you seen this guy?  Ok.  Then people selling everything from the classic campaign buttons (although none quite as nice as the “I Like Ike” buttons of yesteryear) to beanies and T-Shirts.  We thought of sending a T-Shirt to my wife’s step-father, a rabid Republican, but figured it would have been a waste of money.

I dig these guys though.  You have to admire those who are trying to free their country…

That and they had a tidbit of knowledge that I didn’t know.

I didn’t know we (as in nurses) we supposed to supporting Hillary.  News to me.

So we got inside and it was standing-room only in the gym. And no room for the relative late-comers.  It was a full 45 minutes until she was even supposed to arrive and the place was packed.  With the rest of the groundlings we hung out in the overflow area to watch her projected on a screen. Just like on TV.  I thought, “If I knew I would be here seeing her on TV, I could have stayed home and done this in comfort.”

Then she arrived. Big cheers.  Flag waving.  Chanting of “Hillary!  Hillary!”  Enthusiastic accolades from Governor Kulongoski and Representative Hooley all leading up to the main event.  The candidate herself.  So here’s how it went.

Wow!  Great to be here in Hillsboro!  Let’s see if they can hear you in Portland!  (cheers)

The Bush administration sucks, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
Universal Health Care, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
Green Energy, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
Tax the rich and oil companies, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
Dick Cheney.  (boos)
I will get us out of Iraq, blah, blah, blah. (cheers)
Middle class rules, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
I have actual plans.  See them on my blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
I’m going to keep fighting cause some old guy in California told me to, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
Jobs, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
Energy independence, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
Education, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
LNG Pipelines, blah, blah, blah.  (cheers)
Let’s open this up to questions.

At this point we decided to leave.  We could hardly see and it was the same canned speech that we expected to hear anyway.  What’s funny is that later that afternoon, on CNN, we caught her appearance in Eugene and heard the same speech nearly verbatim.

I won’t say she made some interesting points, she did.  I think many of her ideas rest on the basis of the average American making drastic changes and simply put, it ain’t going to happen.  I do not believe that the average American has the intestinal fortitude necessary to ride out the change to Universal Health Care, nor adapt to a green economy that she is preaching.  And there is no way that the oil companies are going to get behind reducing oil imports by 2/3, even if incentives are given for clean energy.  The liberal side of me likes many of the ideas, but that side got bitch-slapped my the realist side.  The reality is that these grand drastic changes will effect the very fiber and soul of our country and will be fought tooth and nail every step of the way.  That’s not to say that they will try to ram this down our throats and things will get stalled long and hard in the halls of Congress and it will be politics and business as usual, no matter who is sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Cynical?  Yes.  That is me.  But it was fun to go.  I think that we will try to go see the other two candidates should they come to Oregon.  It would be fun.  And speaking of fun, I will leave y’all with this.  Enjoy!