Human Priorities, Grand Resolutions & Simple Solutions

So what would you like in your Christmas stocking this year? A small sampling of options in regard to who will live in the White House? A final resolution of the debt crisis threatening Europe and coming to a bank near us soon? A job? Participation in an orgy of self-righteous complaint about the system we created and are near demolishing as our final act on the planet? If your stocking is big enough and your stomach is hardy enough you can have it all just by joining one of the two big political parties and participating in our predetermined political process.

Predetermined I say, not predestined or preternatural, simply predetermined by the need for a huge financial war chest to have any real chance to reach the highest office in the land. The amounts involved boggle the mind. Half a billion will just about get you a ticket to ride on the presidential express all the way to the White House. Wait, that was during the last election, this one is bound to be more expensive. Aside from asking myself why the hell any sane human being would want that job; Why the hell would anyone work to raise and spend that kind of money just to get the worst job on the planet? Mysteries abound but human nature remains constant.

Aha, another cryptic comment by the man with none of the answers but most of the questions? Nah, some people simply want to tell everyone else what to do, some just want their ego stroked constantly and a few might even want to try and solve some problems. What job could offer a better chance to have it all? George Soros, a perennial candidate for the greatest investor in the world, was quoted this morning as saying the financial and debt crisis could take down the whole shebang, Europe and the USA in one swell foop. George is a man who ought to know, he could afford to buy more than one presidential candidate a ticket to ride. In fact he has tried a couple of times to do just that. I hope he has learned something from that experience about where not to invest his money.

It has become a new way to assure the necessary support for your industry to support the candidate of your choice for the highest office in the land. Few of those bets will ever pay off as well as the investment of hundreds of millions the oil and defense contracting industries laind out for the run of George W; but every industry participating in this pig wrestling contest hopes to hit the jackpot. Presidential hopefuls no longer divide easily along ideological or even party lines. The Republican party looks more and more like the contentious Democratic pantry of old with candidates of every flavor and no real agenda except to favor them as got them there. They all, however, stand foresquare behind the corporate right to fatten their grand aspirations for them; before the day is done they will, in aggregate, have spent more than in any prior presidential year.

I love to contemplate what a Perry Presidency would mean to the oil oligarchs of our retiring nation. I nearly swoon at what the food processing industry would glean from the Presidency of Herman Cain. The Pharmaceutical biggies have placed their little piggy bank on Michelle but appear to be hedging their bets with a tiny investment in Newt now that he is once again in the front of the pack. It is kind of like the good old days when the racetrack was the only wagering place that was legal, follow the winners to the ticket line and bet on their favorite horse in the race.

The pharmaceutical boys should have stuck with Obama. The insurance industry did well enough even if they didn't really back him before Obamacare made it illegal to live without medical insurance. Buying mere Senators has almost become passe' in this century, the real prize is the guy who holds the purse strings. Representatives are a dime a dozen, governors can be had for the price of a lottery ticket, but there is only one guy who disburses four trillion dollars a year every year he is in office. so in spite of my best resolutions to the contrary I am going to comment on this run for office by the best bought candidates in the world.

I do occasionally yearn for the days of the smoke filled rooms that gave us the likes of Teddy, FDR, Harry Truman and even Dwight Eisenhower. They were picked for some of the same reasons that the moguls of today use to justify their choices. Fortunately they were corrupted enough by the office to stand up against some of the very people who elevated them above their natural levels of competence. Those days are gone though and the whole sausage making apparatus is right out in full view and it is as disgusting as advertised.

Nevertheless we all have to decide among the available hopefuls who will spend out money this time out. Mitt can't wait to get his (Aha you were sure I was going to say mitts but I fooled you) hands on the till. Newt positively drools at the chance to make history instead of making it up, but he does have an eye for the main chance honed by his years as a lobbyist. Poor sincere President Obama, he really wanted reconciliation and change. He got it coming into office with the nation in such a great condition and all. I love them all but I still dream of Jeanie in the White House. She could have done it, fixed everything with a flick of her wrist and a magical gesture and a really cute wiggle. May whatever Gods that will have you keep you safe in these trying times.