The Empty Chair

Mitt Romney should have dropped the platitude laden empty speech and just come forward and sat in the empty chair that Clint Eastwood addressed. Then Clint could have dropped the schizoid ventriloquist routine and simply asked Romney what he planned to do about the problems the country is facing.

Perhaps Romney would have also told Clint to go fuck himself.

Certainly that has been the message we have gotten from both parties the last four years. We're pandering to our base. To hell with what is good for the country. Republicans sell supply side snake oil and Democrats pretend something like the grotesquely underfunded entitlement programs can remain in tact.

Clint Eastwood has already given us our leader, the people's choice, the empty chair.

With polls showing 70% of the American voters wishing they had some other choice it remains unlikely that Jesus Christ or George Washington will throw their hats in the ring. 

Politicians pretend to be able to do anything the voters demand of them. They are department store Santa Clauses who listen and nod. I'll get rid of the twelve million illegal immigrants. Balance the budget without raising taxes. Protect Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and unlimited unemployment benefits without turning us into Greece. Washington is the North Pole. The store is closed.

On this Labor Day weekend, as state governments dismantle worker rights and union members shop at Walmart and other facades of Chinese infiltration, let us reflect on the Fall. Not the season but the course our divided nation has chosen. For when the music of our vicious, uncompromising self righteousness ends what will everyone be looking for?

Don Arrup

Satire1