Asides

It’s spawning season for the common Politicianus localis here. The species is parasitic in the adult form as it attaches itself inextricably to its food source (the American dollar) and becomes very difficult to eradicate. But it’s a real pest during spawning season in Irvine because you can see the larvae sprouting out of the lawns by the thousands, making the street side very unsightly. The larval form is about 2′ x 3′ but completely flat, typically displaying colorful red, white, & blue lettering. Fortunately, most larvae do not survive to become fully fledged politicians and they will be gone from the lawns by the end of November.

I can understand why some people are tired of how PC the society in general has gotten but not why they would want a president who is so politically incorrect. There’s a reason why the word “political” is used in the term “politically correct” — because politicians should be held to a higher level of decorum than the population at large is. A president’s words have a much larger impact than yours or mine do.

If influential people can be intimidated into staying quiet about the national weaknesses they see in the USA, how can we identify the improvements we need to make as a country? The whole reason our founding fathers added the first amendment to the US Constitution is so that the powerful could not stifle dissent against the government. Now with social media, we Americans are stifling our own dissent by demonizing people who speak out as unpatriotic. It’s much easier to hide our collective heads in the sand than it is to face our weaknesses.