I was mainly thinking of his name recognition.
This seems to be a major bottleneck in the process. Americans by and large seem to be a such a vain and apathetic lot waaaay too much of the time. Almost to a fault. (Ever hear of 'pop culture'?) And for all of the time on their hands, they just cant be bothered to either be informed or the 'process' kills it for them. Kind of like 'education'. Its all out there. Its all available. And a lot of it is free. But it isnt going to just magically drop into your lap. It takes some individual unction to push yourself to 'make it happen'. And even if you have all that, there are a myriad of roadblocks. This is how we manage to be a rich country and still be about 23rd in the world on math and science scores. Im not sure I can even name 23 other countries let alone imagine which ones have the smarter kids than ours. But not to worry .. because ours are 'confident' in their ignorance.
But the whole process seems to have some built in guarantees that will inevitably weaken this grand old republic. Starting with a (republican) Caucus that sort of starts and ends in red states. I remember last election McCain was the GOP nominee before I could even get to the polls! When Bush 43 ran my choice was Steve Forbes. Neither Steve nor I ever had a chance. (So I ended up contributing about $35,000 to Bush to defeat Algore) Add to that, virtually the entire media establishment (news, music, movie industries) will either trash or ignore any and all true conservatives (in season and out of season). Meanwhile working overtime trying to convince us that only 'moderates' have a ghost of a chance to win. (Based on the assumption, that the 'holy grail', the 'independents', the 'fence sitters', the people who have no clue, no convictions and who worry more about appearances (what their neighbors think of them) than about solutions to the issues/ problems) have to be corralled to your/ our side. And we have to do it by our candidates moving to the middle rather than the 'independents' moving towards our candidates (as they did with Ronald Reagan). This all predicated on agenda driven polls and the wisdom of the various elements of leftist punditry trying to inform us on 'how we can win'.
(As if they wanted us to win) Suckering as many of us along the way as they can.
Another factor that is usually unmentioned is that we (on the right) usually have families and jobs and ... a 'life'. Im sure that Im not alone when I find it very difficult to get to the polls when its time to vote because of work... and because of the little things that 'life' throws at me along the way. So Im usually trying to frantically 'time it' to get to the polls or .. trying to get all the absentee stuff lined up (just in case the
leftist State Secretaries (see George Soros) decide to count my vote ... "As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it? - Boss Tweed"). At the same time you have all the Govt employees and those getting State assistance amassing at the polls like a colony of ants on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at a picnic. Govt employees are guaranteed time off to get to the polls and the welfare recipients ... well you know about them.
Add to that ... conservatives usually have better things to do than to run for office and expose their families and loved ones to the anal exam that is sure to follow by the media once you become a serious contender. (Or maybe theyll pull a Clarence Thomas or a Sara Palin on you hunt you down like bloodhounds on a fox hunt to destroy you right out of the gate) Libs on the other hand are sort of 'going to church' when they report for work for Big Govt. We conservatives generally think of God as ... well God. Libs think more along the lines of God = Gov't. Big Gov't. I mean libs are generally godless. And govt actually fills the void for them very conveniently. Its no wonder democrats on capital Hill feel 'entitled' to power and feel as though they were cheated somehow when they are out of power. So they (the left) bow to the alter of Big Gov't. And of course abortion is the 'sacrament' in this 'religion' they hold so dear.
There are other 'built in' factors too. I dreamt about this last night. I couldnt go back to sleep after that so I got up at about 4 am and here I am. Im reminded about what Burke said, something like "the only thing necessary for evil to win, is for good men to do nothing". If only it was just that simple.There are so many factors. And I grow weary trying to argue the cause to many who are supposed to be on our side. It never stops and it never sleeps.
I had to go to city hall where I live last night, to try to stop the encroachment of Statism into our little township. I have lawyers, judges, commissioners and other officials on my side. Or Im on their side.. whatever. I had to stand up and give a little speech (I am no 'speaker') and appear on local TV. But we are still out gunned 6 to 1. What a ****ing nightmare. I can barely find the time to get to the 'meetings' of these self important clowns. You should see them .. sitting up behind their high and mighty bench. I hate it, but I just cant afford to 'do nothing' anymore. Liberalism seems to be in the last stages of swallowing us all up whole .. alive.
It sort of reminds me of a Boa Constrictor. Every time you move, every time you breath .. or exhale, it tightens its grip. This is what I feel like we are facing in this country now. The snake is liberalism and we are its intended victim. Or ... its like the people (moderates on our side) who rather than fight the alligator (liberalism) seem to be more content to feed it. And they seek to convince us (real conservatives) that we too should feed it. Not knowing that after the alligator has finished everything else .. it will eat them/ us too. And by this time it will be much bigger and fatter and more powerful.
Its kinda like watching a wreck in progress and you can warn people all you want ... but they have their blinders on, they have their little goals they are trying to achieve and for the life of them they cannot perceive anything else that might hamper or sway them away from that immediate and temporal objective. Then the wreck happens and they wonder why.
I am going to support conservatives, not RINOS every opportunity I have. But ... it appears that in the final analysis we will probably end up with some milk toast 'democrat lite' candidate because this is what the GOP prefer. (Oh, I forgot to mention this in the equation above) Whoever it is, Im going to have to vote for to defeat Stinky. But isnt that always how it is now? We have 2 choices. Either bad or worse. We can either go full bore off the cliff ... or we can just slow the train down a little before we go off the cliff. Those are the only 2 choices according to the 'conventional' wisdom from the 'inside the beltway crowd. And you just know they (the left) want us to win, dontch you?
Did I say I had a dream?
