"It's Pretty Much a Circus"
By Capt. Fred Davis
Published: Monday, October 3, 2011






As I watch and listen to elected officials, I’m reminded of yesteryears and the excitement of having a circus come to town. A ringmaster introduced each act and we all listened closely. After an introduction, each act would put on their show. If the clowns were introduced, they would make the crowd laugh until they had tears in their eyes.

When the elephants were told to sit, they would sit. If told to stand up – they stood. If they didn’t follow the directives, everyone would laugh at them and the show would go on. It was well known the elephants were the hardest workers in any circus; the event depended upon them to get their work done. Once they did, they were allowed to rest.

Our political elephants seem to take time to rest BEFORE they do any work. In the Wild West Circus acts, donkeys were always stubborn but a snap of the whip would soon encourage them to get their act together. These days, our elephants and donkeys are so busy fighting and confronting each other, they have forgotten there is a crowd watching them. Perhaps they just don’t care but they should notice the crowd is not laughing; they are becoming very angry and disenchanted.

When the head elephant says his main objective is to defeat the head donkey – I wonder if he has any interest in representing the people.

What is his intended objective?

As I see it, there are just too many animals running around and the ringmaster has definitely lost control of them. The people still watching have tears in their eyes, but they are tears of sorrow, not laughter.

As I write this column, yet another last minute decision was made by our leaders to keep the country running. This action was not taken before those desperately in need of help were threatened.

How dumb do our politicians think we are? Do they think we believe if they don’t do their jobs we will wake up one day and nobody will be there — the country will have dissolved, perhaps into a puddle of tea?

Speaking of tea, the Tea Party is really funny. Everyday there is a debate or straw poll and at each of them a new leader emerges. Michele Bachmann, the first straw poll winner, has almost disappeared from view, but she is still plugging and calling herself “the comeback kid.”

Another almost running candidate’s daughter was seen on tape arguing with a loud mouth about gays and politicians. After airing the tape — repeatedly — it appeared to everyone it may have been a staged confrontation. Do you suppose that is possible?

I watched Governor Chris Christie looking out for his state’s residents during the East Coast encounter with Hurricane Irene.

When he told people to, “get the hell off the beach,” I turned to my wife and said, “He could sure get my vote for President.” She responded, “Mine too.”

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, author of “The World Is Flat,” said in a recent column: “The time is right for a third party candidate.”

I heartily agree, and perhaps a third party spot would be a good opening for Governor Christie, if he is ashamed of his party. He stated at a recent address when asked about running: “I don’t have the fire in my gut for the job,” but that’s OK. Romney and Perry are already burnt out and President Obama is in the middle of a firestorm.

The whole political mess will completely turn around several times before we enter the polls a year from now.

I think it is time to start getting rid of politicians, not judges. We could save a lot of money, especially by eliminating all the special investigations that become necessary when one of them is accused of doing “inappropriate” actions. I wonder how many law enforcement departments we have in our county, and has a new one been added?

 

 

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