By Mickey Walker-August 28, 2011
Am I the only one who is not surprised that Rick Perry
zoomed up to the top of the polls as the GOP nominee for president? It’s the hair. The camera loves him. Billy Bob voter don’t need no more than
that. Throw in a nice smile, a
manly voice, and a kick-their-ass swagger when he talks about Washington, D.C.
and you got all the ingredients for the next man in cowboy boots to sit in the
Oval Office. Overnight it appears that Rick Perry has zoomed to the top in the
polls. Even before he announced his intentions to run. With those early polls putting at the
top of the GOP heap, his nomination seems a certainty. The GOP is running scared to get
anybody at all to defeat Barack Obama for a second term. Is it possible Perry could be our next
rock star president?
He isn’t the first politician with good hair and a sound
delivery on camera to make it to the White House. Take Ronald Reagan. He was the all-American boy, the Gipper. He won our hearts long before on the Silver Screen, then later
on television as the Old Ranger. The familiarity of Reagan’s face to American voters got him elected
governor of California. His face
was recognizable in the long list of movies Reagan starred in, e.g., “King’s
Row”, “Bedtime for Bonzo”, and “The Knute Rockne Story.” Then later, on television, Reagan hosted Death Valley Days,
the General Electric Theater, and other prime time programs. Face recognition. Nothing like it. You see the face, your lizard brain
says “good” and you pull the lever in the voting booth. No one would ever know that you never
did any research on who Reagan was before and after he took office as president
of the United States. You just
like the way he carries himself and smiles, right? But here are a few reminders (milestones) about who the man
behind the face and the wink and a smile truly was. Some of Reagan’s legacy.
Just between us voters, oftentimes Billy Bob don’t have time
to research the candidate beyond the TV screen. You are too busy raising children, working hard to put bread
on the table, commuting, you know the drill. So your lizard-brain assessment of a candidate’s
qualifications tends to be almost 100% subjective. No time to research his voting record. But would you like to have a beer with
him? That’s the ticket. Got Bush II elected. Or was that Antonin Scalia (bite my
tongue)? Only got time to watch
him on television and see how good he talks on camera. Issues don’t really matter. The country’s financial future hit the
wall when Reagan convinced American voters that borrowing and spending 3
trillion dollars during peacetime was the right thing to do. After all, he said, the Evil Empire
(Russia) was a real threat to democracy, Christianity, and life as we knew it. Americans saw the twinkle in his eye on
camera and bought into it. And the
ongoing interest on the extra $3 Trillion in debt he plunged us into since he
left office in 1988. Like in 23
years X say 3% X $3,000,000,000,000.00. Then you compound the interest and it becomes even more double
trouble. Where were the Tea Bagger
Police when you really needed them? And how come they all gone all lock-jawed on talking about the massive
borrowing and spending that occurred at the hands of GOP? Guess they caint
count or cipher the truth all that well.
Now John Boehner and Paul Ryan never mention Reagan’s
borrowing and spending to get us ready for a showdown with Mother Russia. Isn’t that what led us to the present
financial disaster America now faces? So why don’t these indignant Tea Baggers bust Reagan’s butt for all the
trillions he borrowed and spent in PEACE TIME? Can you say HYPOCRITES? Can you say $640 toilet seats? $500 hammers? Billions of dollars for an aircraft carrier? Grand Theft Country? I mean would anybody in their right mind be able to justify having our
dear Uncle Sam pay $640 for one toilet seat when you can buy one at Wal-Mart or
The Home Depot for $14.95?
Has any conservative, Republican, or Tea Bagger, including
Sarah Palin or Michelle Bachman, ever brought up the Trillions of dollars
borrowed and spent by GOP presidents and their lapdog congresses? In the interest of the Tea Party’s hard
line stance to stop spending, why do they put Social Security on the operating
table and never, never, never mention the borrowing and spending on wars and
military buildup of planes and ships and maintaining over 5,000 military bases
all over the world? Does being a
Tea Bagger mean you naturally got a terminal case of the Arithmetic Dumbass Virus? Heck, Bush II borrowed and spent $4
Trillion dollars more during his 8-year term in office. But that’s another story, and to this
day nobody seems to care that much. Certainly not John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Grover Norquist, Sean Hannity,
Paul Ryan, or Glenn Beck. You
know, all them fiscally “responsible” people who got working people and poor
people government programs in their country club crosshairs? I don’t know why not, but it would be
fun to see them asked the question on “Face the Nation” someday.
Many American voters, though they can’t recall much that
Reagan did or did not do as president, think that Reagan made us feel good
again as Americans. Unless you were
union. He literally destroyed
unions when he fired the Air-Traffic Controllers who went on strike for more
benefits. He attacked Grenada
(Yeehaw). You hardly ever saw him in
an impromptu setting unless he was walking from the helicopter to the White
House. And for the camera he
always pointed to his ear to indicate he could not hear the reporter’s
questions for all the ‘copter engine noise. Now that is a real inconvenient truth (sorry Al Gore). In truth, Reagan had no prepared script
to read from, but the camera loved his face each time, his smile, his
All-American boy charm, even after he grew old. And America excused him for being an old dumbass. And we paid dearly for it. But hell, he looked good on camera and
made us feel good again. Right?
Then came the Terminator. Arnold Swartzenegger ran in a special recall election
against the governor of California, Gray Davis, and won. It was swift. And neat. Arnold came in the front door while Davis barely
made it out the servants’ entrance with dirty shirt sleeves hanging out of his
bags. Lordy, how did that
happen? Everybody in California
smoking weed or what? Anyway, it
happened. Arnold Swartzenegger pulled
it off. He was a recognizable face
from the movies and television. The
Terminator. Conan. Kindergarten Cop. That’s all it takes to get Billy Bob
voter to pull the lever. How can
you argue with results? Actors
with good looks and hair and clever little lines are much more qualified to
lead and govern the state of California, right? Sigh. But wait.
The Terminator gave a stirring speech at the 2004 Republican Convention. Who could forget the “Don’t be a girlie
man” reference to Democrats and John Kerry? That was at the Republican National Convention of 2004 when
delegates wore tasteless Band Aids with Purple Hearts on their cheeks to denote
that Kerry’s medals were given to him for little scratches he received while
commander of a Swift Boat in the Mekong River Delta. Kerry volunteered, Bush avoided combat duty thanks to Poppy
and Houston businessman Sid Ager. And Ahnald never served in a war except on a movie set. But it all effectively crushed
Kerry.
So Ahnald got to play a new role as governor of California
for years.
Hollywood is everything when it comes to the American
voter. Rick Perry has all the basic
characteristics to win. Like
Reagan and Ahnald, the camera loves him. He has good hair. And the
Billy Bob American voter don’t give a rat's ass no how. About issues. Or researching voting records. Or whether a presidential candidate advocates seceding from
the Union, the United States of America. You know, the country he wants to be the leader of? Has America gone mad?
So can anyone really tell me why Rick Perry could leap to
the top of the polls right after he entered the race as a GOP candidate for
president? Does anyone really know
or care about his record on issues? Why would he leap up to the top of the GOP roster with Bachman and
Romney? Anybody have an opinion on
that? Other than the camera loves
him? And our lizard brains need to
embrace illusory heroes that don’t exist or never did? Did Rick Perry really say that Ben
Bernanke should be tried for treason if he kept on printing money?
With Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush’s iron fist on America
for a long 16 years combined we saw a borrowing and spending spree that totaled
over $7,000,000,000,000.00. That
additional IOU we racked up and added to our National Debt PLUS compounded
interest on that DEBT is the chief reason we are beyond bankruptcy as a country
in 2011. Countries like China,
Japan, and Saudi Arabia who are holding the bag on that debt are getting
nervous. Obama cannot stop the dam
from breaking. All he knows to do
is to tell Bernanke to print more dollars while he rides the fence in hopes
that Republicans will be nice to him and favor some of his policies. But in the process, Obama puts Social
Security and Medicare on Boehner’s chopping block just as smooth as you please
while saying he will never do it. Yeah, right. Reagan and
Bush and their TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH have decimated our
National Treasury even beyond the borrowing and spending for false wars and
protection from bogey man Evil Empires.
But Rick Perry could be the worst of them all when it comes
to butchering and killing most all the social programs the working men and
women have. In Part II to follow
in 2 weeks we will dissect Rick Perry the man in a little mini-biography in an
attempt to show who he really is, and reveal who is behind the mask of Governor
Goodhair.
I confess to cutting and pasting a bit when it comes to
movies and how you would like them to be characterized. For instance, remember the Star Wars
movie where Luke Skywalker fought his father, Darth Vader? Well when Vader took his black helmet
off, in my mind I fantasized that the face I saw was that of Dick Cheney. That
would be poetic justice of sorts. But what’s behind Perry’s mask feels more blood-curdling. I picture
Perry as the alien in the movie “Independence Day.” You remember, the one who the president asked, “What do you
want us to do?” “Die.” the alien replied. With the vehemence and bile that lets
Perry openly say that Social Security and Medicare is unconstitutional, Perry
has to know that many thousands, perhaps millions of
people will die if these programs suddenly came to an end. Does Perry care? I don’t think so. And you know that if elected, he’s
going after those programs.