Presidential Sucker Syndrome

As I watched the run-up to Super Tuesday, and saw people come and go from the polling place, I’ve come to realize just what suckers we voters are.

Think about it….

The presidential candidates always make us promises.  The People get all starry-eyed and become believers.  Depending on which party is in power, we’re always worse off than we ever were, or we want to do even better than we are now.  Some want to be “agents of change”, while some want to come off as a reincarnation of a legend past.

Every four years, we get all caught up in the craziness, and after the election, a harsh reality sets in.

Like many other things, until civics is taught properly in our schools, politicians will set up the uninformed electorate, and they’ll be disappointed again.  Why?  Because we’re electing a president; not a king or queen.

Hillary Clinton says she’ll end the war, while also giving us all health care whether we want it or not.  Since she’ll require congressional and senatorial support to do either, not really knowing what the political make-up of those bodies will be, there’s no way she can make that promise honestly.  It may be a noble goal, but to say she’ll do it and have people believe she can, illustrates just how clueless Americans are assumed to be.

Remember, in 1992 Bill Clinton campaigned on a middle class tax cut.  Even with a Democrat senate and congress, he realized within days after being elected, that he couldn’t make it that happen.  Maybe it was never intended.  Who knows?

Oh well.  He got elected, and that’s all that probably mattered.

John McCain is claiming he’s the “real conservative” running in the Republican Party.  That could be, IF you are willing to dismiss his part in Campaign Finance Reform, and his teaming up with Ted Kennedy to grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, just to name a few instances of his lapses of liberal thinking.

We’re now being told, “It’s his turn.”  They said the same thing about Bob Dole, and look where that got him and the nation.

Barack Obama has inspired the liberal-indoctrinated youth, and the older progressives harboring white-guilt.  Obama has no real legislative record to run on, so he’s running on “change” and “hope”.  He, too, is going to end the war, regardless of what al Qaeda has to say about it.

While keeping it vague, delivering good, inspirational speeches goes a long way.

Mitt Romney is campaigning on fixing a Washington that’s “broken”.  Now, come on.  He expects us to believe that after his first years in office, Washington will appear to be fixing itself?

Romney cites his business experience, running the Olympics and a state.  Don’t get me started on the mess he left the Massachusetts Republican Party.  The numbers of Republicans on Beacon Hill are below pre-Civil War levels.  He left the state with a mandatory health care “model” he wants to institute nationwide.  By the way, Massachusetts will have to raise taxes next year to support it.  Yes, a great legacy to run on.

Mike Huckabee pledges, among other things, to abolish the Internal Revenue Service.  A lofty goal, but to make that a campaign pledge is down right disingenuous.  Again, in order to accomplish this, he’ll need congressional support.  George W. Bush was soundly denied when he attempted to reform Social Security.  Huckabee is going to convince Democrats that they’ll have to work with less forced revenue coming in.

Yeah, right.

Ron Paul wants government to live under the restrictions mandated in the Constitution.  Most Americans haven’t read it, so they won’t know what those restrictions are.  That line in the preamble about promoting “the general welfare” has been bastardized by politicians into allowing government to intrude into way too many aspects of our lives.  And to add insult to injury, we have to pay for those intrusions.

So, we go to the polls and vote for change based on the promises made by those who would be king (or queen).  Some wonder why so many Americans are cynical to the process.  It’s because we know that these candidates are blowing smoke.

Many of us choose not to inhale.