MICHAEL J BLAIR
Blairgowrie
Perthshire
Scotland
This is part two of my look at why the public elect grey boring politicians instead of more exciting colourful humans! See Part 1: A dreary dullness pervading American politics
In part one, I mentioned Mrs Thatcher, British Prime minister in the eighties and nineties. She had a rival for the job of PM. He was the flamboyant Michael Heseltine. But when it came to the crunch, the Conservative Party preferred the terminally dull Mrs Thatcher!
Skipping back to the sixties, Robert Kennedy was as charismatic as his elder brother! And would have been seen as a threat to the establishment. His election would have seen a free thinking intellectual in the most powerful position in world politics! His election could and would not be tolerated! On that fateful night in Los Angeles his campaign was brutally ended! And with that, the end of political hope in America!
Although Gerald Ford wasn’t elected President, he was picked as the Vice President for his complete lack of charisma! It’s rumoured that he had it surgically removed! He made Nixon seem like George Clooney! President Ford could trip and fall over his tongue!
Jimmy Carter was an odd choice, but his opposition was so weak, he really could have appeared stark naked on national television, and would still have been elected! He could have been one of the great presidents but for Iran and a hostile press. Carter was and is a thoroughly decent man! Not to be trusted by the establishment to do what they wanted! He was completely undermined by the military when they sacrificed good soldiers in an obviously doomed hostage rescue attempt! That sealed his fate and brought Ronald Reagan. If Carter had had a second term, Reagan would probably have been regarded as too old to run for office! Such is life and fate!
Reagan ushered in the beginning of the totalitarian government we now see in most so called civilised societies! He was dull in a way that made him seem moderate and folksy, while he and his neocons began to tear up the American constitution! Reagan, having been an “actor,” could be seen as a cuddly uncle type of guy! He was actually a mouth frothing rabid right wing bigot! His cabinet was filled with similar bedfellows! The vice president was George H W Bush! Do you see a trend here? Dull and dangerous now. A much more dangerous combination!
In Britain, we had lost Mrs Thatcher and gained the even duller John Major! A man so grey, he actually was the background! Not a bad man, just terminally dull! There were far more colourful candidates in the race to replace Mrs Thatcher, but once again the Conservatives voted for dull. Major even won a general election! Labour were led by the Welsh windbag, Neil Kinnock. He could orate the hell out of Major and was a much more colourful character! But once again, dull won the day!
Over in America, Reagan had saved the world and defeated communism! He was replaced by the super dull George H W Bush, his Vice President. A former head of the CIA, he exuded dullness from every pore! He spoke, people snored! He continued the unpleasant work of Reagan. Weakening the public’s hold on their Constitution! Militarisation of the police continued apace. No one really noticed what was happening under their own noses! This was to be the era of expansionism! The first Iraq war and the occupation of Kuwait! To this day a satellite of America!
In Britain we got Tony Blair (no relation), a junior snake oil salesman, who proved that the public can be fooled all of the time! President Clinton bucked the trend of dull. No, I said bucked! He had a more than colourful back story. A very intelligent man with an even smarter wife! He had eight years to change America for the better, but spent most of the time denying he had had a series of affairs! He also spent lots of time arguing what sexual relations were! Eventually realising that if a person is going to ejaculate, doing it on the ladie’s dress isn’t a good idea! Clinton’s tenure lasted the full eight years surprisingly! And he left office to save the world! Something he really should have been doing when he was in power!
In America, lucky old you got the son of George! A total nonentity of a buffoon! An idiot of mammoth proportions! A man who knew nothing, except his name was Bush and he was entitled to the job! I’m not going into the sheer crookedness of the Florida vote! It is just too depressing to try to be in any way objective. Not that I was going to be objective, but thought I should mention the possibility!
Here I leave the subject of dull grey politicians and the mystery of for the most part, why the public vote for these dreadfully dull people! Maybe it’s just human nature to be suspicious of interesting politicians!
Michael J Blair is a regular contributor to DDA, and he can be reached at: michaelblair43@googlemail.com.
His Twitter handle is: @mmjblair
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Haha, oh my God Michael, still laughing at this! Great post. Not sure if I completely agree with your politics, but definitely enjoyed your post!