July 17, 1992
Dear Everyone:
Politics! (I know, I know, mustn't start a Letter out with a dirty
word.)
No wonder the world thinks all Americans are crazy.
Look at what we have to choose
from: an
Aristocrat; an
Autocrat; and a
Democrat. And, as of
yesterday, our choices are even more limited.
I must admit I'm a little glad that Perot (better
known in our neck of the woods as "Attila, the Boy Scout") decided to
retire from the race for the White House.
(I guess now he's "Attila, the Drop Out").
Frankly, he scared me a little.
I mean, suppose he'd won?
(I know what you're thinking, but
just suppose.)
Here was a Texas billionaire announcing that he
thought it would be rather fun to run the country for a while.
And that he'd run it the same way
he would run any other "business" he'd bought.
A failing business.
And what do you do with a failing business?
For starters, lay off the
inefficient workers. ("Hello,
Congress? You're all fired!")
And you sell off the less profitable pieces.
("What am I bid for Rhode
Island?")
Seriously, what was he going to do the first time
he found out the Congress wasn't going to cooperate with him?
Threaten them with a hostile
takeover?
And as for some of the charges against Attila, the
Boy Scout: The Republicans
claimed that he'd spied on Bush. Now,
really, am I the only person in the United States who remembers that
from 1976-1977 George Herbert Walker Bush was the
Director of the CIA?
And he's complaining that someone
else had been spying on him?
And then there is the cry that Perot was trying to
buy the White House. Hands, how
many remember when
John F. Kennedy
was campaigning? And his father
send him a wire that read, "Don't buy any more votes than you need.
I'm not paying for a damned
landslide!"
As for the incumbents…after 12 years of
Reaganomics, the rich are richer, the poor are poorer and the middle class
are caught in the middle. And a
notorious bigot
has been elevated to the Supreme Court.
Then, of course, there is
Dan Quayle.
Time was when the Republican
Party gave us a president who couldn't walk and chew gum at the same
time. (For those of you just
returning from intergalactic travel, that was
Gerald Ford.)
Today, we have a Vice President
who's perfectly comfortable playing three rounds of golf with one foot
firmly lodged in his mouth. Quayle
has become the Official Court Jester of the Republican Party.
Every time the voters start
talking about real issues, or taking too close a look at Bush's record,
the Republicans send Danforth out to take another pratfall.
Who wrote the infamous "Murphy
Brown" speech for him? A
Republican aide. Who sent him to
a spelling bee with a handful of flashcards with misspelled words on
them? Think it was a Democrat?
And all the while they're
assuring him, "Don't worry, Dan. Of
course the voters will still respect you in four years".
Right.
As for Clinton, it's too soon to tell.
So far, the worst anyone's been
able to accuse him of (aside from being a Democrat) is that he may, or
may not, have had an affair with a woman who can't spell
Jennifer.
Please, people. We’re
looking for a President, not a Pope.
See you at the polls!
Love, as always,
Pete
| Previous | Next |