The Deciders

Five simple questions:

Do you insist on staying the course in a conflict that’s unpopular and divisive?

Do you consider yourself the decider, the person who knows better than everyone else?

Do you refuse to listen to the American people who have spoken their minds?

Does your ego get in the way of what’s best for the country?

Do you have trouble realizing when enough is enough and it’s time to finally withdraw?

If you read these, I’m sure you’re likely to assume that these are questions that would be aimed at our current president, George W. Bush, but you’d be wrong. These are the thoughts I had last night after watching coverage of the Kentucky & Oregon primaries and they were directed on one Hilary Clinton.

Funny how irony can come along and smack the self-righteousness out of someone isn’t it? I have to admit, it was quite the revelation when I realized that the very thing I don’t like about President Bush is the exact same thing I dislike in Senator Clinton.

Ambition is great, just ask Julius Caesar, or his buddy Brutus to enlighten you on that. Tenacity is neat too, but obsession with your own righteousness, this prevailing attitude that everyone else must be wrong, while you alone are right and so you’ll stick to your guns and go out blazing is just idiocy.

The whole idea of Democracy, in case you’re not aware—and I’m sad to say that I don’t think most people are, in fact, aware, is that the elected represent the people. They are not our betters, our superiors, our parents. They are not elected to look over us like we are so many ants in a child’s ant farm. They are there to do what we tell them to do. They are elected to fight for our interests, for what we tell them we want.

With this ridiculous pair, compromise seems to be as foreign as modesty.

So, I find it highly amusing to listen to Senator Clinton rail against President Bush now, from some moral high ground of her own imagination she petulantly berates him like a child. And I can’t help but think that perhaps the reason she hates him so much, is that they are so very alike.

The policy is different, but the people are the same. And that scares me, so I’m glad it will be one of the other two, McCain or Obama who will become our next President. I don’t sense the same kind of narcissism from either of those candidates.

You see, I don’t need a president who has all the answers and always knows what’s best. I need one who’s smart enough to ask all the right questions, resourceful enough to find the answers, persuasive enough to convince the people of their choices, brave enough to enact them and humble enough to admit when they were wrong.

It’s a simple formula really. And there’s no room at the top, for a pair of deciders.