Bloomington’s Big Party
Monroe County Dems gathered together yesterday eve at the Convention Center to pat themselves on the back and to cheer each other on toward the fall elections. Politics, y’know?
The whole gang of Democratic elected officials in this town and county (almost all elected officials herein, truth be told) made the scene. Even B-town’s notoriously stealthy mayor, Mark Kruzan, showed his face. He contributed to the pep rally as befitting the star of the team but he did not say whether he’s running for a fourth term in 2015, as some have already whispered he may not.
Party chair Trent Deckard read off a seemingly endless list of candidates for the May 6th Democratic primary. When he finished, he told the throng he’d prob. be eligible for Social Security now. Fitting, because it was Franklin D. Roosevelt, after whom the annual bash is named, who signed SS into law.
FDR Signs The Social Security Act Into Law, 1935
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The honored guest of the confab was former US Congress dude Lee Hamilton. The Party presented Hamilton, now a distinguished scholar at Indiana University’s School of Global and International Studies, a certificate of gratitude for being a decent guy who could win an election or two. Hamilton said he tried to follow the path of Roosevelt, who looked upon any potential piece of legislation for what it did to benefit the average person. Sounds like county Dems have themselves a talking point for the 2014 elections.
And speaking of the upcoming beauty contest, the following Dem primary candidates were on hand yesterday:
- For US Congress, Indiana’s Ninth District: Bill Bailey and J.S. Miller
- For Indiana State Representative (several districts in Monroe County): Matt Pierce (incumbent, 61st), Jeff Sparks (inc., 62nd), Jim Mann (46th), Daymon Brodhacker (60th)
- For Monroe County Prosecutor: Chris Gaal (inc.)
- For Monroe County Sheriff: Mike Pershing, Brad Swain, and Steve Sharp
- For Monroe County Clerk: Ashley Cranor and Linda Robbins (inc.)
- For Monroe County Commissioner, District 3: Patrick Stoffers (inc.)
- For Monroe County Assessor: Judy Sharp (inc.)
- For Monroe County Council: Shelli Yoder (inc.), Rick Dietz (inc.), and Jeff Carson
- For Monroe County Circuit Court Judge: Al Manns
Monroe County Republicans currently are looking for an old phone booth to reserve for their pow-wow.
[h/t to MC Dem Party sec’y Efrat Feferman for help with the abovementioned names.]
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Like Father, Like Son?
For the benefit of those whose historical perspective reaches back, oh, say, 15 minutes, one Willard Mitt Romney once, very long ago, wanted to be president of these here Yew-nited States of Murrica.
He lost to a commie, socialist, sub-human mongrel, abortionist, non-Murrican citizen born in Kenya and our holy land has crashed into a sea of shit ever since.
Well, that’s the narrative of the audience Willard Mitt Romney played to back in those paleozoic days of 2012.
Now, anyone who could figure out a way to lose an election to such a blatant example of bold, bald evil, you would think, might consider it better to keep his trap shut in ensuing years. But Ol’ Mitt is traipsing around the country these days, campaigning for Republican candidates for US Congress and various statehouses. Politics, y’know?
Anyway, Candidate Mitt repped a zeitgeist that posited if you’re rich, you have worked hard and are wonderfully fabulous and whatever you did to get that way was good and pure, and by contrast if you were in need, well then, you deserve it and you’d better get the hell out of my face.
Many of Mitt’s supporters considered themselves members of something called the Tea Party. That’s an almost-perfect name for them. They were only off by two letters. More properly, they should call themselves the Me Party.
Murrica, the Romney gang sang, was made great by gun-owning, god-fearing individuals who excelled despite the onerous burden of gov’t regulations and tyrannical things like labor laws and consumer protections. The rest of this sanctified land was populated by takers — those too lazy, unmotivated, or dark-skinned to amass piles of cash.
Mitt (Center) And The Bain Boys: Good & Pure
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Now, how could a man construct such a worldview? Romney himself might answer that by saying a man’s character is formed, in large part, by the most important male role model in his life — his daddy-o.
Mitt Romney’s old man was George Romney, auto company CEO, guv of Michigan from 1963 through 1969, and himself a candidate for prez in ’68. Romney pere is a relic of a long-gone age, a liberal Republican, if you can believe such a thing ever existed. In the 1960s, it did.
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The old boy spoke about poverty and civil rights and Americans helping Americans and he even became a dove after visiting Vietnam, saying that our little excellent adventure there was a “tragic” blunder.
George Romney had this to say about the American slant on economics, something we’ve liked to refer to as “rugged individualism”:
It’s nothing but a political banner to cover up greed.
Wow. Imagine if the Kenyan Manchurian Prez had said that! Oh, the Me Party-ists, the GOP, and Romney fils would scream to high heaven that it was the preamble to a Soviet invasion.
In reality, Romney the Younger didn’t give a good goddamn about the lessons his pop tried to teach him.
So, why am I bringing this up? I’m getting this strange feeling that Ol’ Mitt is fixin’ to run for president again in 2016. I’m no more an idolator of Hillary Clinton than I was of Barack Obama, but I sure as hell will vote for her over a man who doesn’t have the good sense to listen when his father tries to teach him to be a decent human being.
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Callin’ ’em like ya sees ’em! Love it.