Politics and the American Let's Party System

Lads, I wish to apologize for my lack of contributions to THEBIGNOTE. I know you don't necessarily expect me to offer up lame excuses, but I feel that you all should know that A) I had a man out sick. B) Another just quit on me. C) Plus, several people died after eating the crab salad that I'd prepared for a "Northern Exposure" party. I've since learned that their deaths were faked and that they are planning to kill their loved ones after they collect the life insurance money. I won't go into the reasons...but it does have something to do with starting a museum based on the life and work of Fred McMurray.
I'm sorry I ever made that darn salad. I've never even watched the stupid Northern Exposure show. I was just being friendly...that's all. By the way: I do think that if George W. Bush is illegitimately sworn in as President, he should be known as "The Idiot Bastard Son." Why hasn't the press focused on this FZ song in relation to GW? Good evening, I'm off to make some caramelized popcorn for Chip, Ernie, Robbie and Uncle Charlie. I love you all as if you were my own sons.
Stephen Douglas; Bryant Park.

"When the lie gets so big and the fog gets so thick and the facts disappear the Republican trick ("Catsup is a vegetable") can be played out again someone please tell me when we'll be rid of these men..."
Pony

"Replicans [sic] are fine if you're a multi-millionaire, Democrats is fair if all you own is what you wear". FZ was a "Practical Conservative" and I personally think it's A. Gore who's the bigger scumpoodle of the two candy-dates...
effzee

*FZ was a "Practical Conservative" and I personally think it's A. Gore who's the bigger scumpoodle of the two candy-dates...*
The thing about Bush is that he's just a face man for an organization, as was his father, as was Reagan. Already we have James Baker taking a prominent role, as he did before. Dub-Ya is being marketed as a down-home, feel-good, regular guy. The truth can come out later, once the deal is secured. He's already strayed off-message, and said the Executive Branch of our government interprets the laws. This a very basic error in understanding the way our government operates. I am confident that more errors like this will follow. The future does not depend on him as much as on the people surrounding him, who are not elected. Remember when Reagan gave the ambassadorship to Italy to a businessman who contributed heavily to his campaign? He was the one who said the new Italian Navy has glass-bottomed boats so they can see the old Italian Navy. The cliche "ugly American" is an ignorant Texan. Gonna be a long four years.
Pony

I would say you're a little biased and naive, but well, that's just me...
Hmmm, why was it again that Country Music was exempted from the PMRC's witch-hunt? Oh yeah, Nashville is in Tennessee... nevermind.
*The cliche "ugly American" is an ignorant Texan.*
No it isn't.
*Gonna be a long four years.*
Only as long as you make them...
effzee

A closet Bush supporter here? Perhaps he is easier to appreciate from a distance.
Poodle

*I would say you're a little biased and naive, but well, that's just me...*
I would say that we all have our biases when it comes to politics. I would say that FZ would have abhored both of our current choices. I would say that it's going to be about 4 years before we see the end of the next four years. I would say that.
But I'm not going to... I'm going to say that the time is NOW to put our man in office in 2004! I say write in David Humphries for president in the next election! A vote for David is a vote for GoD!
SOFA

*I would say that we all have our biases when it comes to politics.*
I'm not biased, I just smell funny… I'm not in a closet, Poodle, unless you include those intimate moments with my Hoover. Also, I don't support anybody. My point was more that Big Al is in just as many back pockets as any other politician and it's naive to think he isn't. And I think, on a personal level, he's more slimy than GWB (but that's my very subjective, and horribly foreshortened, view). I didn't vote this time 'round because it's a big hassle here and I'm from New York where the strewing of electoral votes is pretty easy to predict (and unlikely to be affected by my absence). I suspect candidates will be sliming up to us absentee voters next time around, though :-p
effzee

Effzee,
Regardless of your observation, it seems to me that Frank directed his ire towards Republicans far more frequently than towards Democrats. Gail Zappa is known to be a large Democratic contributor in recent years. Does anyone know of political contributions from the Zappas before Frank's death? Also, Frank always encouraged everyone to vote. Did he ever mention whether he himself voted, and if so, who for?
Poodle

I find it very hard to believe that FZ would've taken sides with Republicans at any time.
Sofa and effzee believe him to have been a "practical conservative", yet I believe FZ merely sympathized with certain ideas that are, traditionally, part of that party's view upon things, i.e. the way he believed the government shouldn't be restricting the "modern day entrepreneur" too much.
As was stated by Frankie on HotPlate Heaven in the infamous "Henry Cisneros" post, FZ allowed democrats to climb on stage during his 88 tour. No way would he have allowed Rep's to do this!
Other than that, I think FZ was, in a lot of ways, closer to being a democrat than a republican. Anything else would... well... be quite shocking to me...
yellowmud

Gee...did I write that? What the fuck is a "Replican"? Isn't that one of those birds you see in travelogues about Nantucket Island?
My typing is ok; it's my proofreading that stinks.
Anyway, I know Frank moaned more about the GOP than the other guys, but I like to take him at his word when he said he isn't (wasn't) terribly fond of either of them. He's said very pointedly that the first word a kid learns after "Mommy" is "Mine" and that's not something the die-hard left-wingers would appreciate much. As far as GZ, I know she has TG over for white wine and finger sandwiches these days. But she's her own person and, truth be told, she's not often the focus of my thoughts...
You're making a connection that I never indicated. It was FZ who called himself a "Practical Conservative", not me or Sofa, or anyone else. He dedicated a good deal of space in his own autobiography explaining it. I think you're connecting that term, which was Frank's own invention, with the Republican/Conservative party. Nothing could be further from fact. The term "conservative" just means less gov't interference/influence in private citizens' lives, be it social life or business life, and that's all. It's not specific to any certain party. Obviously, FZ despised (as I do) those people in the actual Republican/Conservative Party and he only used the term philosophically. I brought up the subject of the Libertarian Party on Yellowmud's website and I think if any party was attractive to Frank, it was that one. However, they have their own quirks and Frank saw through them as well. I have to admit to an amount of disappointment when I hear/read about Franks eventual alignment with various Democrats. I liked him much better as an all-round Iconoclast and believe that in his heart he just didn't like politicians anyway (what's there to like?). But there was definitely something going on with the Dems, I wonder if Gail had influence in that?
effzee

I had occasion to discuss conservatism recently in another discussion forum, and decided to look up just what it really was. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines conservatism as "Conserving; preservative; the disposition and tendency to preserve what is established; opposed to change," (a second definition refers to the principles and practices of the Conservative Party in England). Perhaps not all that consider themselves conservative actually are, by definition. I suggest that they may be moderates. Also, some of the things that folks like us might object to from the Democratic side (the so-called liberals) are really conservative points, and reflect that party's willingness to compromise principals in order to get more votes (a trait of most politicians). Points such as Gore's involvement, through his wife, in the record labeling movement, and Clinton's policy against medical marijuana.
*I have to admit to an amount of disappointment when I hear/read about Frank's eventual alignment with various Democrats.*
Perhaps he felt as I have at times, that if the Democrats were in the majority as officeholders, we would have a less arduous time getting from their positions to where we "really" want to be. It's a long, long way to go to get to any sort of social freedom from the Republican side. Lot's of Bible thumping, etc. It's a ways from the Democratic side, as well, but perhaps not quite so far. As far as my present personal position is concerned, I have stopped voting for the "lesser of two evils," and continue to seek out alternatives. Otherwise, we just keep swapping one bad deal for another, ad infinitum.
Poodle

*Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines conservatism…*
Exactly, and in U.S. political terms, that's a "Strict" interpretation of the Constitution. That's what real Conservatism is all about. They wrote the thing, it works, don't fuck with it: Keep your nose out of people's private affairs. Expect and support opposing opinions. Don't persecute people because YOU think they're wrong or weird. Let a guy make an honest buck and let him lose it as well, but stay out of his way. Keep your church to yourself and don't persecute someone for his different religious beliefs. That's "real" conservatism. And stuff like that.
The Libertarian Party best represents that attitude in America. Unfortunately, that party's been ruined by too much publicity and it's been infiltrated by whackos who really don't belong out on the streets in a gentile society... Plus, as far as I know, the most nearly Libertarian era was in late 19th-Century England (read Oliver Twist...)
Look up Liberal. It means, basically, "Lot's of" something or other. In the case of U.S. politics, it refers to lots of twiddling with the Constitution (a "loose" interpretation). For example, calling it a "living" document so you can claim to have had a conversation with it and are prepared to tell the rest of us what it really "meant" to say on some point or other. A very shaky business.
Hoo Boy, it's late in Central Europe again,
Been really wonderful weather here, why don't y'all come over for a visit sometime?
See ya then, arf! arf!
effzee

Excuse me, but I don't judge conservatism by its Webster definition, but by the way it governs...
*…a "Strict" interpretation of the Constitution. That's what real Conservatism is all about.*
Yes, so basically: support abortion, disapprove of death penalty?
*Don't persecute people because YOU think they're wrong or weird.*
Unless they are black, or homosexual, or other societal outcasts...
YM

I must say that I don't feel the election was rigged, or stolen; it was lost. I mean that not in the sense of won or lost, but in the sense of misplaced and can't be found. When the voting machines have an error rate of 3% and the two sides are maybe 1% apart in votes, it is a statistical tie. Without recounting, by hand, ALL the votes in the state of Florida, all the legal wrangling that has followed will really amount to not much more than a coin flip. In my opinion, such hand recounting should be MANDATORY in such cases, thus relieving either side of the onus of asking for it. The legislators in Florida were just shortsighted in the making of their election laws (As is most of the human race in most of the things it does. How many people think that population control and space travel are the most important items on the human agenda?). The good news is that Florida and other states may modify their laws after the spectacle of the present election. The bad news is that, no matter WHAT happens, either Bush or Gore will get in. The situation has at least shown how mercenary both sides can be in going after what they want. I do feel that the Republicans are slightly more mercenary than the Democrats, but if I didn't feel that way, I would have had to vote for Buchanan as a third party candidate rather than for Nader. ;-)
Poodle