Thoughts While Shaving

Ronald Reagan was a conservative. Well, no. He was a quasi-libertarian pragmatist. The difference in this instance is rather great.

The current rat pack of GOP candidates races after the imprimatur of true conservatism but they fail to understand Reagan’s complexity and they certainly have failed to recognize that the last true conservative to run for the White House was Senator Barry Goldwater.

The GOP hopefuls could learn a lot by both understanding why Reagan was less conservative than historical revisioning would suggest. And they would be wise to understand the intellect of Barry Goldwater, whose conservative views did not necessarily make him into a rubber stamp representative of the far right.

The neo-cons have all but ruined the GOP. And unfortunately no one who is currently running seems to have the courage to say so.

I can’t imagine Barry Goldwater raising his hand in tacit agreement that Charles Darwin is problematic.

As for the Dems: none of the current candidates has effectively suggested how he or she would be substantively different from a vague and sentimental retro-vision of Bill Clinton.

It seems like both parties have this addiction to the same vague retro-vision problem.

In the meantime I sure as hell wish someone would raise their hand for Darwin and for American science over there in the GOP.

I wish someone in the Democratic field would say that we need a strategic national defense plan rather than the Bush administration’s muddled and wrongly named "war on terror".

I wish that both parties would get behind the American middle classes.

I would like to hear a whole lot less about religion.

I’d like to hear more about the safety of our food supply.

I’d love to hear more about a national drive to improve music and the arts in our schools.

In the meantime I’m still shaving. I model myself after the British Empire. Just keep clean. Muddle onward.

In the meantime I think the most able person in the candidate pool is Hillary Clinton.

In the meantime I wish any of the candidates would talk about disability.

S.K.