One of our forums dwellers recently wrote a post that I responded to with a pretty long post of my own. He mentioned some thing about the current political world and I responded with my views. However, as it turns out, I think that I’ve struck a chord that many of you might agree with. Let me explain.

First, though I do agree with the Republicans on just about everything that they do these days, I find it hard to stand staunchly behind them. It’s not because of any of the recent media stories or anything like that, but rather because of my own personal ideology. And that is what I want to express in this article - what makes me stand apart from the current political landscape. I have a feeling that many of you are going to agree with my notions.

I’ve figured out where I stand. I think that I stand on the side of truth and common sense. And sadly, neither one of our major political parties seem to exude this quality all the time in the everything that they do. I will say that in my view, the Republicans have had more common sense lately and the Democrats have had more ridiculousness - but that’s nothing for either of the two to be happy about.

You see, I look at the current “scandal” over the State of the Union address as a damn joke. The President said, “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

Now I said this in the forums and I’ll say it again - that statement is 100% correct. And for those of you who are on the left side of the spectrum, you should know that Bill Clinton even came out and said that it was a mistake for that statement to be in the Address itself, but that it was true. Prime Minister Blair even came across the pond to say that it was a true statement.

I believe that the problem arises in perception. Those who are in my shoes see no problem with the argument because it, in its logical form, is valid. However, the content of the statement may ultimately prove to the statement itself as false (anyone who has taken Logic in college knows what I’m talking about). To make it quite simple - the British may or may not be correct, but the assertion that the British had that information is completely correct.

So from my view point, I see a 16 word phrase that some Democrats have called a lie and that assertion (that the 16 words are a lie) is in ITSELF a lie! And that is what bothers me about the current Democratic landscape - there are too many people going out of their way to skew the truth in order to make their arguments seem more valid.

Why not try common sense?

Arguably one of the greatest Presidents of all time, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, saw a great problem in America - the Great Depression. He used common sense and led us out of it. Sure, the second World War had much to do with the restoration of the union, but it was his ideas and his insight that led us there.

In the same vein, one of the greatest Presidents of our modern era was Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson. Yeah, many people unjustly give him the blame for Vietnam and other social issues of the time, but he saw that there was poverty in America and he did everything in his power to fight it. I bet that none of you (or very few of you) know that President Johnson passed more social reforms than even Roosevelt during the Depression! This was a man that wanted to help every single American. Sadly, this was a man that embodied the last true virtues of Democratic ideology.

The roles have been reversed these days. The Republicans are the ones who now “get it” and understand the needs of the people at large. For those of you who don’t believe it, just look at the Republican Revolution going on in the political landscape of our country. Have any of you seen the map of the counties that voted for Bush as opposed to those who voted for Gore? It’s something else…well over 90% of the map of the US voted for Bush.

Ultimately, I could give two shits about all of that. I want the truth. I started watching Bill O’Reilly during the big 9/11 charity debacle and he was telling the truth and didn’t allow other people to not tell the truth. And during last year while I was taking political science as a minor, I studied Susan Estrich who did the same thing, but who was a Democrat! My God! It was bliss!

Finally, two people who don’t bullshit and tell it like it is on either side of the political spectrum. This is what I want. This is what I believe the majority of the American people want. We want no nonsense leaders who will tell us how it is, up and down the line. I want something refreshing - like a President who will say that we are going to be in a war that will see us lose many men and not be over shortly, but still wind up saving our civilization. George Bush gave me that after September 11th and I still believe that what he said is correct. Iraq is a part of the War on Terror, North Korea is a part of it, the Taliban was a part of it, and the Iranian and Syrian governments have become an increasingly larger part of it.

And no pundit can take those ideas away from me. No politician can change my mind with a pretty slogan or campaign ad. No one will be able to twist the truth in my mind. Those ideas are what I’ve seen with my eyes. Those are the ideas that I’ve heard from the overwhelming majority of the people who would know - the soldiers I’ve spoken with, the politicians I’ve spoken with, and the veterans that I’ve spoken with.

It’s the truth. And that’s all I really want. I want the truth and common sense.

Is there anything wrong with that?

(Originally published as a Balrog Babblings article)

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