"Who is Giuseppe Zangara? I don’t really know.
He’s a guy with a gun who fired five shots on February 15, 1933, killing the mayor of Chicago.
Why? Because Zangara was standing on a wobbly chair. And the mayor of Chicago wasn’t his target. It was the guy the mayor was shaking hands with: the newly elected president, Franklin Roosevelt.
If Zangara’s chair isn’t wobbly, Roosevelt never takes office, and we swear in his running mate, John Nance Garner, a man whose political ideology was the basis for his opposition to a package of legislation that would be called the New Deal.
And we don’t survive the Great Depression."
Yeah, another Aaron Sorkin homage if you will. I told you...it's my blog so I get to do whatever I want. I seem to be on a Sorkin bent lately, or maybe I'm always there and I simply stray away from time to time. Either way, here we are again, once more into the abyss.
History is rife with examples of the what ifs of life that seem to course through time. A recurring theme for Sir Sorkin is the idea of the path not chosen, a reflection of what might have happened if door B was chosen instead of door A. Not a regret, simply reflection. Once again a way for us to do better by knowing better.
What if the chair wasn't wobbly and Roosevelt was killed? Who can say for sure. What if Dr. King hadn't stepped out onto the balcony that day in Memphis. What if Kennedy hadn't been shot on that November day in Dallas? Personally I think that moment was when the country below us began losing it's way. Not because he was shot, they do have an affection for the ways of the gun as we know and tend to feel that it is a viable answer to their perceived and real problems. But because he was cut short in implementing the changes that may have prevented Vietnam from engulfing the nation, which, again in my opinion, is where the country really lost it's way.
America is an idea, at least it started as an idea, answering to the people and being a beacon for freedom and prosperity. You can judge for yourself what it has turned into over its history but for me it has become a mish mash of power, greed, division and fear. Intricately woven into that is hope, idealism and a capacity for greatness. I feel they have become their own worst enemies and it would take a lifetime of study to plot how they came from the Declaration of Independence to Drumph threatening to build a big beautiful wall to keep out the bad dudes. To be clear I'm not in any way suggesting that the country was pure as the driven snow, they have always had dark spots, like any nation, just simply that it seems to me that they are truly lost now. And I don't think that's a good thing for the world. They wield too much power and influence for it to be OK to simply turn a blind eye to their transgressions....talk about the elephant and mouse sharing a bed eh?
The Democratic party and its institutional machinery had a chosen standard bearer for the last election in the name of Hilary Clinton. A worthy and hard working career politician that simply gotten eaten alive by the fact that the Republicans had gerrymandered enough districts over the past few terms. She wasn't perfect but she would have been certainly more effective in being, you know, human, than that shit head Drumph. The fact that Bernie Sanders was a more populist choice amongst not only Democrats but moderate Republicans points to the unintended consequence that the establishment has to live with...they got Drumph because they didn't allow the process, flawed as it is, to run its course. So Hilary is writing memoirs, Bernie considers another run and in the mean time we have that fuck wad screwing with the world.
If you ask me the biggest issue that "politics" suffers from in America is the money that is thrown around during the never ending election process. In the name of free speech they have, through a series of laws and amendments, legalized bribery in their election cycle. Whether the FEC and Congress meant to allow these things or they were an unintended consequence of the changes they have made over the years is up for debate, what can't be argued is the fact that there is a lot of money being thrown around by special interest groups and industry...that's the real Hunger Games. Eat or be eaten and on the menu is power and influence with the dessert course being bags full of money. That is simply insidious. Closely following is the antiquated electoral college...really??? I mean really? Enough said.
I like to think about that road not taken sometimes and the unintended consequences that I may have inspired by choosing this way or that. It's a good existential exercise. It's also an opportunity to day dream. So that can't be all bad...all us dreamers out here might think...
Ciao
D
The Democratic party and its institutional machinery had a chosen standard bearer for the last election in the name of Hilary Clinton. A worthy and hard working career politician that simply gotten eaten alive by the fact that the Republicans had gerrymandered enough districts over the past few terms. She wasn't perfect but she would have been certainly more effective in being, you know, human, than that shit head Drumph. The fact that Bernie Sanders was a more populist choice amongst not only Democrats but moderate Republicans points to the unintended consequence that the establishment has to live with...they got Drumph because they didn't allow the process, flawed as it is, to run its course. So Hilary is writing memoirs, Bernie considers another run and in the mean time we have that fuck wad screwing with the world.
If you ask me the biggest issue that "politics" suffers from in America is the money that is thrown around during the never ending election process. In the name of free speech they have, through a series of laws and amendments, legalized bribery in their election cycle. Whether the FEC and Congress meant to allow these things or they were an unintended consequence of the changes they have made over the years is up for debate, what can't be argued is the fact that there is a lot of money being thrown around by special interest groups and industry...that's the real Hunger Games. Eat or be eaten and on the menu is power and influence with the dessert course being bags full of money. That is simply insidious. Closely following is the antiquated electoral college...really??? I mean really? Enough said.
I like to think about that road not taken sometimes and the unintended consequences that I may have inspired by choosing this way or that. It's a good existential exercise. It's also an opportunity to day dream. So that can't be all bad...all us dreamers out here might think...
Ciao
D
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