John Boehner (& The Republican Party) Doesn’t Have The Answers
After viewing the CNN piece with John Boehner, senator from Ohio, it quickly became apparent that he doesn’t have the answers that I want to hear. He doesn’t have the answers that the people (Digg) who put forth the questions want to hear either.
When asked about the things that are supposed to define the Republican party, he is able to parrot the typical party line only, not having any substantive input, or breaking any new ground. The man does not present himself as thoughtful or in any way a person who thinks clearly, or able to critically reason when necessary. If by chance he can, he is incapable of putting that out for consumption.
Question after question, some coming from left leaning questioners, others apparently from those leaning right, the amount of doubletalk and politspeak was immense. Only when the answer involved the majority opinion was a non-equivocal answer given.
When asked about the internet, and Net Neutrality, he speaks of how the government should stay out of it, yet he shows no grasp of the fact that the internet has already been encroached upon by the government, and how the physical beginnings of the what we call the internet were military. How much more governmental can that be?
at least he takes a nice picture. Looks like someone’s dad doesn’t he?
During the 23 minutes of the interview, more was deflected than made visible, more was reiterated, and less effort was made to expose new thought. For someone who says that his goals include bringing more people into the Republican party, he doesn’t seem to get that the ideals of that party are only popular with people who are like him, and not capable of new patterns of thinking.
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2 Comments
Ashram
January 28th, 2009
at 8:55am
The first thing that people need to do is lose the misguided notion that, somehow, the Republican and Democrat parties are fundamentally different.
Oh, they may APPEAR to be different, but deep down they are all the same. Almost nobody in either party is really up to the job of serving the people and almost everyone there is out to pilfer the American people of their money and their freedom.
Both parties have done their best to encroach on the Bill of Rights, particularly the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, and 10th Amendments (just about every single one). Examples include the Republican attack on the 1st with the Patriot Act and the Democrat attack on the 2nd with the Assault Weapons Ban.
And both parties have made it a habit of stonewalling, sidestepping, and downright lying to the American people.
Instead of looking at your elected officials with some kind of fascination or with misty eyes (I’m talking to all of your passionate Obama supporters, and I’m not some person who is a McCain zombie because that group is equally reprehensible), view ALL government officials with suspicion and scrutiny.
Remember, the people in government are only supposed to serve and represent THE PEOPLE and to protect the rights of THE PEOPLE and, so far, Democrat and Republican, they’re all doing a VERY bad job of that.
the oracle
January 28th, 2009
at 9:36am
Ashram, while I agree with much of what you say, I don’t think that it can be said of the current president, just yet. I do believe he is trying to be much different. I also realize he is human.
I am thinking that the idea of moving the war front from Iraq to Afghanistan is not a good one. History has shown that that county is no easy place to hold a war, and the people refuse to be dominated. Better covert activity to accomplish what is needed.
As to you original thoughts – the public is not ready to do the HARD WORK necessary to keep the government free from undesirables. If it was, we would see about a 70% turnover in every election.
Thanks for the comment, and hanging in over the past few days of troubles.