*Written by Rob Rimes.
The world has once again slipped into complete and utter madness! This seems to be all too common lately and maybe that’s because the world is actually always mad. It’s possible that when things seem somewhat normal, it’s just because this mad world needed a quick breather. The frequency of the madness has amplified in the last few months and those moments of normalcy seem to be few and far between. Madness is the new normal and due to that we’re all experiencing perpetual fits of delirium. Well, at least those of us who attempt to actually pay attention and follow the happenings within the world, especially those of American politics.
We aren’t even a week removed from the incredibly long and mostly boring Republican and Democratic National Conventions and the American political climate is reaching temperatures that could transform our planet into an ocean-less wasteland similar to Venus. It’s like everyone is mixing fistfuls of uppers and downers and washing them down with absinthe – the real stuff not that crappy wormwood free American swill!
First, muslim extremists killed an American ambassador and attacked U.S. embassies. Second, conservatives are blasting Romney as he is going into the most heated part of this 2012 battle. Lastly, a “leader” of the Ron Paul Revolution jumped ship to sign up with an establishment neocon guy. I can’t help but shake my bourbon-enhanced noggin, as there is just so much to take in but I have to break it all down in the form of written word because for some reason, I love torturing myself by overanalyzing every aspect and every issue affecting the 2012 presidential election.
Yesterday morning, I woke up in bed next to my ex-girlfriend and a canvas that she attempted to turn into an absurdly colorful painting of her mother’s Bichon Frise. I reached over her, grabbed the remote control and flipped on my television. I was greeted by the cast of Fox & Friends as they were talking about the murders of the American Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three others. Man, what a shitty way to start the day – being reminded of the sick and twisted bastards who are willing to murder, maim and destroy in the name of some archaic god.
So what caused these attacks? Was it because they hate us – the free and rich “Christian” people, as the conservatives always try to point out? No, they murdered this ambassador in protest over a film made by an individual – not the United States government, mind you – that showed Islam in a negative light. These extremists were mad at one person that depicted their god in an unflattering way but somehow, in their actions, failed to see how they were depicting their god in an unflattering AND disgusting way. So yes, four people were murdered because of their association with the United States over the fact that a single individual made a negative film about their religion’s top dog.
This murder wasn’t the only incident. In Egypt, protesters scaled the embassy walls and tore down the American flag. There are also protests growing in Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen – among other places. The same people we “liberated” in Libya murdered our people. It makes you wonder what exactly and who exactly we fought for, right? And that is really the narrative that has now entered into the talking points on both sides of the 2012 presidential election. Romney has been critical of Obama’s handling of the situation, Obama has been critical of Romney’s criticism and ultimately, Obama has egg on his face for being the guy that so hastily went into Libya to liberate them in the first fucking place. Frankly, it’s a goddamned mess.
Our leaders have turned this into a disrespectful dick-wagging contest and it’s just sad and completely misses the point. That point is that people are dead. Sure, in the big scheme of things, people die violently in the Middle East and North Africa all the time because of these psycho shitbags, but it isn’t often that an American ambassador gets killed. Unfortunately, for many of us, it had to take the death of an ambassador to put all of this back into perspective. When soldiers die, the public pretty much just brushes it off, as it has become so commonplace that we are numb to it. When someone who isn’t sent over there to fight gets killed violently, suddenly the action has a face on it and it hits home. It’s kind of disturbing that that is what it takes for most people to feel a connection to any of this insanity. Then there are those who still don’t seem that torn up about it.
Now I am not going to accuse either Romney or Obama of not caring about the lives lost over there but their spat over the last twenty-four hours has been unacceptable and borderline disrespectful. To keep it simple, Romney criticized Obama for his remarks and said that the Obama Administration has shown weakness in their handling of the situation. He said that Obama’s remarks were “akin to apology” and that, “It’s never too early for the United States government to condemn attacks on Americans and to defend our values.” Romney felt that Obama not immediately condemning the attacks showed that the United States can be pushed around and bullied into accepting the crazy murderous ways of those in that part of the world. Now while I get what Romney is saying, it was a bad time to say it. I don’t want to feel like Romney was just taking advantage of the situation to tear down his opponent but that is what it looks like and truthfully, that just isn’t cool. This isn’t an incident that should be used as political fodder, at least not less than twelve hours after the attack. Besides, unknown to Romney at the time, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – a pivotal person in the Obama Administration – came out and condemned the attacks. Defending himself from the Romney comments, Obama said that Romney has “..a tendency to shoot first and aim later.” Whatever, both guys need to take the high road and not make this tragedy all about their November showdown.
Moving on to the next bit of business, conservatives have been blasting Mitt Romney. No, not for his comments on the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens but on his lack of testicular fortitude in combatting Obama. You see, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham and several other major conservative voices don’t think that Mitt Romney is taking it to Barack Obama in the way that he should. They are tired of the Obama-approved attack ads aimed at Romney and they want Ol’ Mittens to fight back and throw a couple solid haymakers towards the president. Wow! It’s as if they read my writings and rantings, as I said that in a previous article just before their comments aired on the radio. Of course, they said all of this before Romney bashed Obama over his handling of our ambassador’s death in Libya but I’m sure that they are now happy, considering Romney is putting himself out there – regardless of the shittiness of his timing and the fact that it just seems like a ploy. Personally, I feel that you can attack the guy’s record and go after him without exploiting an American killed in the line of duty. But hey, whatever pumps up the base, right?
The point is, I am sure Romney has heard all the criticism of those on the right that want him to up the ante and pull out his big elephant balls. I’m sure that this is why he acted hastily and took a shot at Obama. It was just the wrong time and the wrong issue to verbally assault the president on. Mitt Romney most definitely needs to step his game up and throw down the hammer but he has to be calculated and take the high road. You can still throw stones and be a gentleman while you are doing it. However, Romney needs to throw real stones, not just stones made up of simple anti-Obama mantras. Romney has to hit Barack with facts. There are plenty of facts that expose the failure of the Obama presidency. Romney has to take that information, get it out there and cement it into people’s minds. He isn’t going to win on just bitching about the guy with no real substance or data behind that bitching.
Shit, look at Ron Paul’s attack ads. Dr. Paul went after specific candidates but he dropped facts that they couldn’t really dispute logically when it came to debate time and Dr. Paul looked like a genius because of it: even with the media trying to create the narrative that Paul was maliciously attacking other conservatives. The truth is though, no one in the media could call Ron Paul a liar. Well, Rick Santorum did and he just looked like a whiney brat pouting over his mom packing him a boloney sandwich instead of PB&J for lunch. Mitt should follow the format of Dr. Paul and how he handled his competition, as it gained him more support throughout the primaries. This just brings me to the next part of this article, as I leave Romney and Obama behind.
Jesse Benton, who was Ron Paul’s controversial campaign chairman, has walked away from the Ron Paul Revolution. Considering that Dr. Paul’s 2012 campaign is over, Benton is out of a job there and in addition to that, he stepped down from his senior vice president position at the Paul-inspired grassroots group Campaign For Liberty. So what is a former leader in the Ron Paul Revolution supposed to do for work? Well, he has joined establishment Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, in an effort to get McConnell reelected to the senate. No, really!
Looking at what Jesse Benton’s position was within the Ron Paul campaign, Reason’s Brian Doherty – who has written a book specifically on the Ron Paul Revolution, described Benton’s involvement as:
..the leading strategist behind the idea that it was best for the Paul machine to normalize itself within the Republican Party, and is also known for being eager to segregate the campaign from the Paul grassroots’ more radical edges. Taking that tack often earned him the enmity of many of Paul’s more hardcore fans, especially the ones who wanted a loud and vigorous and messy fight-to-the-death against the establishment until the very end.
What was it about those hardcore grassroots Ron Paul supporters that Benton wanted to distance the campaign from? Didn’t he realize that those were the people that brought Paul to the dance and helped put him out in front of the world? Or is Benton really just a Republican establishment guy at heart? I’m going for the latter, as his actions have shown me that he walks on that side of the fence. Hell, maybe Benton’s stance has had a big impact on Rand Paul and that’s why he doesn’t come off as anti-establishment as his father. Personally, I always looked at Jesse Benton as a cancer but I didn’t speak up. I never went out of my way to be critical of him during the primary process but maybe I should have. Maybe I should have called a spade a spade and not buried my concerns in an effort to give him the benefit of the doubt. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was directly or indirectly involved with Rand Paul’s insulting endorsement of Mitt Romney. It’s pretty apparent that he was the guy pushing the Paul campaign to play it cool and to not rock the boat as much as it needed to be rocked. Maybe Benton’s formula got Paul a bit further than he would have but maybe it held him back because he wasn’t setting the fires he needed to set. Regardless of whether or not you can put blame on Benton or not doesn’t matter so much though, as it was Dr. Paul that kept him around until the end. That’s the really disheartening part.
The truth of the situation is, now that Benton has aligned himself with Mitch McConnell, all the naysayers and critics of Benton have been proven right. I mean, this shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone, it should just be an affirmation of what we already knew. Tom Woods hit the nail on the head when talking about this very issue when he wrote:
Ask yourself this: how much money would you have to be paid to work for an enemy of the things you’re supposed to stand for? Maybe now people will understand why Jesse would fly into a tirade after some of Ron’s most heroic moments, when the rest of us were cheering.
Tom Woods has always called it like he sees it and I will always respect him for that. While there were a lot of critics of Benton, I tried to not be one of them. I tried to look passed the bullshit but in the end, my concerns and fears were found to be justified. Truthfully, it sucks but it is what it is and it’s better to have Benton on the side of GOP elite than on the side of the liberty movement: a movement he never really supported or believed in except where it could advance his career. To put it bluntly, fuck Jesse Benton! Good riddance! Now go enjoy your time with the scumbags you pretended to be fighting against.
So it’s been a fucked up week to say the least. The presidential race of 2012 is bringing out the worst in people. As things heat up, people are showing their true colors and reminding us all that this is just politics. It’s a disturbing world where dog eats dog, no one is safe and people’s principles, morals and values can be bought and sold for a vote or a dime. We have under two months left before Election Day and I can only assume that this ride will get much dirtier and much crazier. The delirium that we politificionados suffer from is only going to get worse but this dangerous ride is only going to continue until this speed demon machine goes barreling into the ballots on November 6th. Until then, I’ve got enough Old Crow and cheap beer to keep my twitchy nerves under control.
Oh yeah, one more time, fuck Jesse Benton!
There, juvenile Tourette’s spat over. Glad to have that out of my system and that bastard out of the revolution.
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