The Line of Kings

It’s only January 3rd, 2005 and the next presidential election is already looking rather bleak. For starters, outside of an act of God, nothing will prevent Hillary Clinton from winning the Democrat nomination for President in 2008. She’ll face stiff enough competition from the likes of John Edwards, Evan Bayh and John Kerry but in the end, the Clinton machine, which owns the DNC, will secure her a resounding victory. She’s already made illegal immigration a campaign issue, which she isn’t believable on but believability isn’t something that seems to matter in the eyes of most American voters. Also, Hillary is known as somewhat hawkish on foreign policy issues and recorded a vote for the Iraq war. The former Black Panther associate isn’t believable here either but that’s OK. As we all learned from this past election, the 60’s and the 70’s were a million years ago and nothing liberals did back then is relevant today. After all, Hillary’s all grown up now. Surely she’s put away her dreams of bringing down American hegemony from her activist days (←insert sarcasm here).

However, the field of Republicans vying for the highest office in the land isn’t too promising either. Actually, it’s not so much a playing field as it is a minefield. Senator John McCain, while he’s my personal favorite besides Dr. Condoleezza Rice, is already making stupid mistakes in what I’m sure he thinks is his rightful place as Republican frontrunner for 2008. His major issue so far is steroids in sports. Hillary is taking illegal immigration and boarder security on and this guy is making a federal case against steroids. That’s noble and all but it doesn’t exactly scream top priority for a Commander-in-Chief. If that’s indicative of the kind of tactics he’s going to employ for a serious run at the presidential nomination, then he’s probably wasting his time. Not that this really matters much as, according to Newsmax.com, my political nightmare appears to be slowly coming true:

“Washington Times reporter and Bush biographer Bill Sammon flatly predicted on "Fox News Sunday":

"Jeb Bush is being groomed to be the successor to his brother. The first sign of this is him being sent by President Bush to South Asia with Colin Powell to head up relief efforts."

Sammon noted that in any potential presidential contest, the Florida governor would handily carry his own state, along with its critical Electoral College votes.”

For those keeping score, Jeb Bush recently stated in reference to a run at the presidency, “No! Why am I not believable on this subject? This is driving me nuts.” With all due respect to Gov. Bush, he’s not believable on this because he’s a senior member of the Bush family and somewhere between the 50’s and today (if not much earlier) that family became American royalty with high elected office as their collective birthright.

Another reason why he’s not believable on this subject is Karl Rove. If you’ve read “Bush’s Brain” or at least my review of it, there’s a bit that deals with life after George W. Bush’s term in the oval office. The book states that Rove’s objective is to continue to wield policy influence by getting agreeable, malleable, political contenders into powerful elected offices. Rove has managed Prince George into not only a governorship but also two terms as Commander-in-Chief and leader of the free world. Mind you, this same fellow, whom I voted for, couldn’t find oil on his own, in Texas, home of the oil barons, when he had his own oil company. It would be a slight understatement to say that Rove is a man of considerable marketing talent and seems to have his hand on the emotional strings of the American voting populace. Rove may be the first political consultant with his own office inside the White House and that’s too much power for an unelected official in my book. The only problem is, if he can get GW into the Oval Office, just think about what he can accomplish with his brother, the one most whom most Americans don’t think is a boob. If the GOP is already grooming Jeb Bush for his turn at the steering wheel of democracy then you can be assured Rove is right there in the shadows ticking of a list of dirty tricks to employ against Hillary in 2008.

So this is what it’s come to; we voters now have to choose between two lines of royalty. One drawn in blood from the victims of the Dixie Mafia and one drawn in oil from Texas and Saudi Arabia. That’s not a choice, that’s an oligarchy. I’m sickened to think that my vote counts the same as somebody who will undoubtedly fall for whatever marketing strategy both kingdoms decide to employ. Whether it’s the folks who will vote for Hillary because she’s a woman or because they really like her husband, I now have to stand in line and watch them try to hand over our country to a socialist with a decidedly anti-American track record. Then of course there will be the gung-ho, rah-rah anti-terror strategy of the GOP. “Vote for Jeb, his brother protected us from terrorists,” they’ll say. Rove I’m sure will also take Gov. Bush’s history of dealing with crisis’ such as the 4 successive hurricanes and now this tsunami and will fashion that into a message that because he can effectively manage relief efforts, he can keep Americans safe. Throw that in with the usual “no-fags” campaign and you got yourself a winner, I reckon.

Royalty and nepotism in America subverts democracy and in my opinion makes us no better than Putin’s Russia. I’ve already held my nose and anointed one prince king because the alternative was so awful, I won’t do it again. Unfortunately I’m only one voter. The lesson in all of this is that the American public needs to start tuning into what going on in their country. They cannot afford to be provincial lambs allowing themselves the fallacy of thinking their elected shepherd’s will keep them safe. This shouldn’t be all that radical for us. We dumped one king over 200 years ago and now we need to revisit that spirit of 1976.

Whether it’s Hillary or Bush III, we’re doomed if remain blissfully ignorant.