The Cult of Personality

and ironically it's not in the Democrats where you will find it. Republican bumper stickers should read: It's not the issues, stupid. It's the heroes.

Most especially if you are a fan of John McCain/Sarah Palin and you hate the New York Times, please break your rule and read Frank Rich today-- Palin and McCain's Shotgun Marriage. He has his usual links for you to check that his opinions have facts behind them. We are being told Palin is this wonderful natural leader, please read the links to see if it holds up to investigation.

I know enough good, right wingers to know that they are not all horrible people. Many love this country and are buying into the idea that McCain will be the best choice for it. Unfortunately they are being sold a bill of goods, a pig in a poke, pie in the sky, and emotions are being used to close the deal (think the callous use of 9/11 footage once again during their convention). These good people are ironically being sold on the cult of personality where it comes to both Palin and McCain (when they are told how bad it is if it was Obama/Biden. They are being told what to think and because it's done slickly, they don't even know it. They think it's their own idea.

Everyday we see evidence of how the McCain campaign has been taken over by Karl Rove and his minions. You can see that slick operator's fingerprints on the Daily Show where they went to the convention to ask delegates what made small towns superior. I forget where I originally saw it but you can find it here: Small Town Values. (Warning: it is not politically correct for its language-- as usual). If you can't bear to hear a few swear words, the gist of is that these Republicans had no idea why they were superior to middle-sized or bigger towns. They had been told it and it sounded good.

Not to say small towns aren't nice places (I live near one) but they have the problems of anyplace else. Palin's little town in Alaska was the meth capitol for awhile if not still. Sorry but small towns have suicides, murders, thefts, teen pregnancies, divorces, adultery, corruption, etc. Sure, they have less of it but it's because they have less numbers.

Sometimes I wonder if Rove wanted Palin all along and only indicated he preferred someone else because he knew how to manipulate John McCain. Rove is good at running campaigns, but the evidence of the Bush administration is that he's no good at running the country.

There are so many issues to discuss before November, and I will be going into them, starting with the economic situation, but not for awhile. For the next week or however long it takes, it'll be High Mountain West with a lot of photos and an attempt to express what the Yellowstone region means to me (definitely not easy).

It's important to store up beautiful places and rich experiences because they are what make us who we are; then we have the emotional strength to go out and try to make a difference in the world or at least our own little part of it.

I'd like to say that whatever happens with the election, we will be okay, but I don't believe it. I think this is an important turning point for Americans. I worry that the right path is not easy to find, that it's far easier to follow the masses. What if the masses are going off a cliff? What if they are seeing an emperor with no clothes but being told he's richly garbed?

What if the ones who have power only care about themselves and don't mind what happens to the rest of us? How do we protect our own families, our friends? I wish it was different, but I don't think we can take an attitude that this election won't matter to our individual lives. It will.