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February 21, 2008
Posted: 07:46 AM ET

Boy this is hard one.

I’m a Democrat. Big D. I like most things Democrats like. I like less guns in the hands of lunatics (and if you’re not a policeman or a soldier and you want a gun, then I consider you a lunatic). I’d like people dumb enough to want to ruin their sex lives to be able to get married, even if they are gay. And I’d like public schools to actually educate the kids, even if the kids are not mine. And yes, I’d like idiots who have unprotected sex in this day and age to get pregnant and have the right to not have idiot kids. I like government to handle big things like law enforcement, health care for people who can’t afford it, building roads and bridges, making sure there is a safety net for the old and poor. And yes, shock of all shocks, I’m willing to pay taxes so that stuff is paid for. But to be a true Democrat, I have to make sure my dreams are never fulfilled by picking a candidate for president who will lose to a nightmarish Republican. This year it’s a nail-biter.

A few years ago it was Al Gore, then John Kerry. Both of them lost what seemed to be unloseable campaigns. Clinton couldn’t have been more popular. The country couldn’t have been more prosperous. The only way he could lose was to distance himself completely from the popular president, and then bury the passion that’s inside the man and bore us to death with details no one wants to hear. But guess what? By golly, the man was able to fight the odds and lose to what seemed like a sweet dumb lost guy who didn’t have to work too hard because his daddy was a big shot. And his daddy’s daddy… well you know.
Bush made so many straight-out factual errors and verbal slips we all started to feel sorry for him. He seemed so nice, after all. Even though he was from New England, the guy had a Texas accent and that’s always endearing. People with Texas accents can say anything and it sounds sweet. “Take one more step and I’ll blow you to smithereens,” and “Y’all [want] some pie?” have equal emotional weight in Texas. So the nice guy wins. Yes, the “chads” were messed up in Florida but Bush won.
But four years later we saw what G.W. had wrought. One war we needed to win and were losing in Afghanistan. One war we never needed to be in that we were losing in Iraq. The budget deficits were higher than anyone could possibly imagine and the economy was slowing down. There was the image of Dubya standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier with the “Mission Accomplished” banner behind him and the whole world knew the mission he accomplished was squandering everything our country had earned in terms of money, recourses, credibility, and human life for a cause that only had meaning for him and his pals. Schools were worse, air was dirtier, people were poorer—the man couldn’t possibly win.

Then there was Kerry.

He was experienced. He was deliberate. He was a war hero. So the Republicans made it clear he was shifty, he was a flip-flopper, and he wasn’t a war hero. We all got swift boated. Kerry didn’t help himself by doing his hardest to NOT seem like one of the people. Somehow America got it in its head that only a simple man of the people can steer the ship of state. Maybe it’s Frank Capra’s fault, but I don’t think it’s always the best policy to get the least knowledgeable guy in the room to decide on stuff. So it’s a close one but Kerry loses.

So whether it’s Dukakis or Mondale or McGovern or Humphrey our tradition is clear. Let’s find a loser But this year is the hardest we’ve ever had it. Who will lose worse? The woman or the black guy? Tough call.

They’ll say Hillary is a robot, an unfeeling woman who cares more about polls then helping her country. Or they’ll say she’s just the weak-willed, all-too-forgiving puppet of Bill Clinton and he’s not the Clinton you liked. He’s changed. Gone screwy in the head.

But then there is Obama. They won’t openly play the race card. Instead they’ll say he’s “Hawaiian.” You really want a Hawaiian running things? They barely have enough energy to put the pineapple garnish in your mudslide. That will send the right signals to anyone who forgot they are racist. Then they’ll say Obama has no message. Then when you tell them the message is better education, better health and a stronger middle class work force, they’ll say that’s not a message.

Sure the Republicans have the least-popular sitting president in living memory sitting in the Oval Office. They have a tanking economy and a war with no end in sight and a giant deficit that will swallow this country whole. But that won’t be enough to get people to vote against the party that brought you all that chaos.

They’ll say John McCain is a war hero and we are unlikely to slander him the way the Republicans slandered Kerry. We don’t work that way. We like to let the Karl Roves of the world tell lies about the Democrats and then spend the whole election playing catch up. They’ll say he’s a maverick who thinks for himself even though he voted down the line with Bush for just about eight years. He went with bended knee to the religious right and is now begging for hardcore conservatives to not hate him. So much for free thinking. He voted for the war and he says he’ll stay there 100 years and even so we’ll lose to this angry right-wing guy from Arizona who is probably too old to be driving, let alone running the country.

I guess if I had to pick, and I do, I’d prefer that the Republicans attack Hillary rather than Obama. They at least can attack her record and her husband, and it’s easier to make fun of a woman than a black man these days. Yep, if we want to ensure the loss it’s Clinton with a terrible vice presidential candidate: maybe Ted Kennedy or Carrot Top.

So we’ll lose again. We’ll shatter the dreams of the young energized electorate and then will join me in a long parade of defeated Democrats. Big business will have its way with our country and we’ll have yet another eight years to grumble that it would have been different if we had won.

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Filed under: Barack Obama • Bill Clinton • Democrats • Hillary Clinton


Chris   February 29th, 2008 6:56 am ET

Is there such a thing as a religious democrat in the United States? You know, I mean the kind of person who’s all for bigger government and smaller big business, hates guns and their toters, wants universal health care… but is a regular church-goer (or not) who happens to be morally opposed to abortion.

Why, in the US of A, do you either have to be generally against war and pro-choice, or a gun-toting warmongerer who’s pro-life? Are they not both incredibly paradoxical positions to have to take? I honestly don’t get it.

Adi   March 1st, 2008 3:40 pm ET

What makes you think that the democrats are going to lose? Don’t you think that the American people will be able to look past ruthless attacks on race and gender, and allow themselves to believe? To believe that it doesn’t have to be like this? That we don’t have to run a country like a business? That good intentions and plans CAN be realised? Call me naive but I still think its possible. We will win, not only because we now know what it costs us to make incorrect decisions, but also because the new democratic campaign has mobilized a new group of people- a group of people who have in recent years become detached from the election process but are now getting involved, a group of people that you call the “young energized electorate.” And I don’t think they will let us lose.

Tim   March 2nd, 2008 10:49 am ET

Perhaps you are missing the message. America does not want big government, and they will take the liars that promise to reduce the size of government and lower your taxes over the liars that promise to increase the size of government and increase your taxes every time!

I completely agree with you about how utterly dissapointing the 2004 election was. I didn’t think the folksy guy from Texas had a chance. I told everyone there was no way he would get another four years after the debacle of the first four. The aftermath of that election makes me agree that America is dumbing down pretty quickly. Exit polls showed that Kerry was too erudite. He was a smarty pants, who always used those complicated words! Folks just couldn’t relate…

So in retrospect, get ready for four more years of republican rule. The way to fix this problem is to make our schools competitive on learning. Maybe the generation after this one will be able to understand that presidents sometimes need to use complicated words and require visionary ideas. Hey whats wrong with school vouchers anyway? why are we so in bed with the teachers union that we are willing to sell out our kids education?

Once people start to realize that Obama is a politician who stands for more taxes, and more government regulations rammed down your throat, the youth vote won’t turn out, and the old guy with the gimpy arms will win on “lower taxes, less government”.

Whatever happened to a fiscal conservative, social moderate democrats? Maybe we can run a conservative democrat one of these elections and take back the Whitehouse, but even the rhetoric on the democratic side is contradictory. First hillary claims that Exxon isnt being taxed enough (they paid over 40 billion on just over 70 billion in gross), and yet she wants to make america more business friendly by lowering taxes to allow companies to be more competitive… which is it?

When we have a fiscal conservative democrat running again, you will see the next democratic president. I don’t think obama or clinton will be able to win with the more government, more taxes strategy… come to think of it, its the dumbest strategy you could imagine, when will we get a clue?

Chris Lester   March 4th, 2008 10:44 am ET

I would like to start by saying that I am a Big Republican, I like the ideal of being able to control my own life with out looking over my shoulder everytime I go to the Doctor. I believe that we should alow the states to decide the issues of road construction and other such areas. I think that we tried a Big Government United States and it didn’t work. The Founding Fathers of the United States stressed fully about their fear of big Government and I agree completely for the Founding Men and Women who brought this country to its existance. I frown on democrats who want the Government to come in and take over everything. I would hate to see this great nation to become under a Big Government Communistic rule. I like deciding when and where I go to the doctor, how I maintain my business, and I will have the comfort knowing that with today’s technology, knowing that if a teenager decides to get pregant then she has the morning after pill and does not need to resort to murder. Gay rights is a joke to this nation’s foundation, knowing that the sanity of marriage will be protected under a republican President is a must have for any Christian American and any other American who believes in the 1st Amendment. Speaking of the Constitution if I’m not mistaken and I’m not, I am assured the right to bear arms under the 2nd Amendment. I would hope that in the upcoming election that the people of this county would look inside themselves and actually think, not listen to the media and the politicians, but listen to themselves and choose a Commander in Chief that would beneifit us and the memories of those loss soldier who died so vainly for the country they loved.

Rachel   March 5th, 2008 12:59 pm ET

Your sarcasm is lovely, but i disagree. I think people are disillusioned, done with the republicans on this one. I think even in the disorganization of the democratic party that we’ve seen the past…. 8 years (at least), people dont want to be in this war anymore.

On top of that, personality counts. Kerry had none. Obama and Clinton both have more then enough to go around. Add on top of that the disorganization with the Religious Right; i think the dems have more chance then ever this time.

IF they miss it, and lose to the republicans, i would question whether they really are fit to lead a nation- cause they couldnt take what was handed to them.

I guess we shall see

Brad   March 5th, 2008 3:23 pm ET

“I like less guns in the hands of lunatics (and if you’re not a policeman or a soldier and you want a gun, then I consider you a lunatic).”

Yeah, great comment. My definition of a lunatic is someone who likes the idea of letting the government control all the guns. I just don’t understand any of you democrats and republicans. You all trust government to tell you what to do, how to think, and how to live. Most of you will find out, as you get older and wiser, that if you count on a government to protect and provide for you, then you will ultimately be disappointed in the result. Don’t you all know that the only reason there are “democrat” and “republican” parties is to keep us divided and to do what we are doing right now… arguing and bickering over candidates who could care less about you, me, or anyone else, but themselves and their families. They all debate and act like they stand for something when the cameras are on… but the minute the cameras are off, they’re shaking hands and collecting their checks from the PACs and lobbyists. So go ahead, continue to support your candidate and feel good about yourself, because you’re “supporting the political process.” It just stands to show that you hardcore democtas and republicans are a bunch of sheep waiting to be slaughtered!

Matt   April 2nd, 2008 2:16 am ET

It’s the political system on a whole that is so disgustingly flawed to begin with that it doesn’t even matter anymore who the presidential candidate is. We are a nation divided and will continue to be a nation divided if we choose to stay on this course. There is no unity in America anymore. Everybody has their own agenda, which they freely push onto anyone willing to bend to it. There is no common goal among the American people, it’s only constant bickering about who is right and who is better. The two-party system is destroying our nation and will continue to do so until we as American’s and as a society on a whole realize that issues are never as cut and dry as left vs. right.

We don’t need a democratic president and we don’t need another republican president. We need a president willing to be able to change and adapt as necessary. One willing to look beyond the red or blue colors of an issue. And most importantly a president who protects the freedoms of this country’s people. THAT is what our founding fathers stood for when our great nation started, and we have disgraced them terribly. I’ve given my service to this country to protect the freedoms that so many take forgranted, but with more and more freedom being taken away, what will be left to protect?

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Super DeluxeCapitol Punishment is a comedy blog by the Super Deluxe team set up to mercilessly and universally mock all the political theater with guest celebrity bloggers and comedy videos. It does not represent anything except the satirical views of the contributors.

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