Anyone
who has ever dealt with kids and their Santa Claus lists understands how to
handle the situation when they put that particular thing on the list (usually at the top of the list) that is
unobtainable, inappropriate, or just too expensive. The typical response is to simply tell them
to go ahead and put it on the list; just be sure to put some other things on there also. This is the old escape route that places the
blame squarely on ole St. Nick for
picking the wrong gifts from the list
and allows you to skate away unscathed. Well,
here is my impossible gift list for Santa; made with the full knowledge that
they are quite likely fantastical and totally unrealistic.
First
off, I am going to cheat and split the first request into two parts. The initial part is for our President to grow
up, shut up, and man up. Stop whining,
stop throwing sand, stop pulling hair and slapping faces, stop dropping
bathroom references every little whipstitch, and stop pumping up the arrogance
to levels that are barely tolerable. Start performing by walking the walk and stop talking
the talk. Choose your words more
carefully, doing a better job of matching the quality of your speech to the
quality of your content. When you are
caught with your hand in the cookie jar…simply smile, slowly and plainly
retract your hand, confess you are sorry and won’t do it again, and then move
on. If you don’t want to be put in the
uncomfortable position of defending poor decisions or actions by your bad
associates in the future, stop running around with bad associates. Do your job and fill the vacant positions in
your Administration. It is inexcusable
to allow important, critical, and essential positions to continue unfilled two years into your term. There is a reason why top level government
offices exist and leaving them vacant puts those departments and agencies into
positions that lead to inaction, misaction, and abuse. Nature abhors a vacuum
and so does government. You got
elected; now do your job and put good people in a position to fulfill your
campaign promises. Oh…and by the way,
when you select good, competent people to fill those positions (as I admit you are prone to do), leave
them the heck alone and let them do their jobs.
Don’t engage in public and trivial spats with them and instead, give
them the respect and support that accomplished professionals expect and
deserve. Recognize that you have
survived probably the most unfair initial two years of a Presidential term in
recent history, feel good about that
accomplishment, and allow yourself to grow
into the dignified (now THAT is getting
into impossible territory!), inspirational, and credible President that
this nation deserves and that you have the unique opportunity to become. Now the second part…
If
you cannot find it within yourself to make these course corrections; then
demonstrate the benevolent good sense to refrain from running for re-election,
collect your laurels as they may be, and return to that corporate jungle from
whence you came. Be proud of what you
have accomplished; but spare us from another four years of constant sparring
with all of your political enemies, both real and imagined. Allow the Republican Party to learn from
their past primary debacles, let them choose a worthy successor to your
primarily sound governing principles, and let us build on a relatively solid
domestic and foreign policy foundation.
And if perchance you choose to continue
your occasional adolescent approach to the Executive office; then I will wish
for some extraordinarily gifted and courageous Republican to stand up and
oppose you for the 2020 Republican Presidential nomination…and defeat you.
My
second gift wish crosses the aisle into that fantasy land commonly known as
Liberal/Progressive thinking. I continue
to be absolutely baffled by the successful bait and switch game played by Liberals who are slyly changing their
moniker to Progressives. As we all
know from experience, a rose by any other name is still a rose. Just as global
warming conveniently morphed into climate
change when its ridiculousness was exposed for all to see; we now see the
Liberal community attempting to ditch the age old label of Liberal for the new and yet to be defined label of Progressive. The new one just feels so fresh and seems to
roll off the tongue…don’t you think? Whatever.
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If
these people, who inhabit basically all of the Democratic Party leadership
positions, want to paint themselves as the only remaining hope for mankind (excuse me please…that should be humankind),
then let them do it. They can call
themselves whatever they like, tell us all how to live our lives, promote their
socialist agenda of everything free all
of the time for anyone standing in line for it, and frolic merrily about as
if there is no tomorrow and no accountability for the actions we take
today. Let them do that. Just let them do that somewhere else. My wish is that the Democratic Party will
remove these idiots to the smaller meeting room in the other wing of the hotel,
reassume the role of a credible national policy variation to the Republicans,
and select a 2020 Presidential candidate that can offer a reasonable
alternative to a grownup Trump or his more acceptable successor. This nation needs two national political parties and whether they realize it or
not, those parties need each other
also. The plain and simple truth is that
either party, left to its own devices and full control of government, will
devolve into ideological certitude that eats away at the democratic principles
upon which our country was formed. It destroys
the reasonable functioning of our government.
So,
Santa Claus…if you are out there and listening, here are Jim’s impossible
wishes for this Christmas (well, it is
actually for 2020, but it is beginning to happen as I write). Don’t give us a President Trump with a
bunker mentality. Don’t give us Hillary
3.0 or some lost and ambitious soul who has humbly trodden the path to Obama
for his political blessing. I am not
really sure at all about which Party you might support and how you might choose
to vote philosophically; but I would like to think that you might just be a
good old Independent thinker like me.
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