During Prohibition he helped run booze down from Canada. He also sold slivowitz (Jewish schnapps) from the trunk of his car that was made by my dad and my dad's cousin smashing plums in the bathtub of my great-grandfather's apartment on 181st St in the Bronx.
My grandfather was a precinct captain for the Democrats in starting in the thirties. He was aligned with the last vestiges of Tammany Hall. He would go to the cemeteries to register voters. Every Thanksgiving he would leave turkeys the doorsteps of the destitute with regards from the Democrats. He would vote many times on election day. In fact when my parents got married in 1961 he used his juice to get them to the top of the list for Stuyvesant Town.
My great-aunt, my grandfather's sister, told me when I kiddingly said in 1996 I was planning on voting for Bob Dole, told me that she would kick the shit out of anyone in the family who voted Republican. This coming from a ninety-three year old woman.
In fact my father's Uncle Jack on his mother's side was an avowed Communist/Marxist. He had great admiration for Chairman Mao, and had worked in the State Department when the Alger Hiss thing went down. He moved to China, got kicked out by Mao and lived the rest of his life in Italy.
In fact Uncle Jack got turned on to Communism by his cousin, and I guess my cousin as well, Howard DaSilva. Yes, the actor. For those who don't know, he played Louis B Mayer in Mommie Dearest.
So you can see I come from a long line of Democrat/Liberal people.
The day I registered to vote I put my party affiliation as Democrat. The first presidential election I voted in I pulled the lever with pride for Walter Mondale. And then Mike Dukakis. But finally got a winner with Clinton. Twice. Even would have voted for him a third time as much as I was sickened by his humming sessions with Monica.
But since Bubba got elected the last time I became a bit more conservative. Children usually make you do that. I became more independent/libertarian, but I was still a Democrat. Like Chris Rock once said, "I am liberal in some ways, conservative in others." I could've voted for McCain but couldn't with that idiot as his running mate, but felt I made a good choice with Obama. The Cheney-Bush years were just to weird and scary.
I want my vote back. Now. When 2012 rolls around I have decided that I will not vote for President Obama.
I thought that with Obama in the White House, and the Democrats in control of both houses, that the grownups were back in charge. That decisions were made at what would be best, not what sounds the best. Obama elected with the help of unions, not just teacher's unions, vowed, or at least gave reason that NCLB would either not be renewed or at the worse, fixed. NCLB
looks like a cakewalk compared to this RTtT shinola. What Obama has wrought is much more draconian, than NCLB.What is worse, is the total immersion now of the federal government into a local matter. Education. Nowhere in the Constitution does it give the federal government authority to get involved in such matters. I tune out the tea baggers. They are, well, tea baggers. But someone, somewhere, needs to grow a set and bring this federal takeover of local education to the Supreme Court. I do not believe it can withstand a constitutional challenge.
So whom to vote for? Gus Hall is dead so I can't vote for him. Who are the frontrunners? Palin? Yeah, right! Would be like voting for Mulgrew. Though I think he is smarter. Mitt Romney at one time seemed good. But he has sold his soul to the Rightists of this country.
I could go, and probably will go third party. I have feeling Bloomberg will run. He has the money, and the ego. But the campaign slogan he will use, Tausendjährigen Reiches, has already been used.
I will probably go with the Libertarian Party candidate whoever that will be.
I need to vote my conscience.
___________________________________
ReplyDeleteGUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAATTTEEE
___________________________________
You knocked it out of the Ball Park with this one SBS. Pure Gold.
Whether a person agrees with you on all or none of your opinions, even a blind man with a white stick and a tin cup full of yellow pencils, can recognize a true Raconteur when confronted with one.
Fiorello LaGuardia would have been proud to hand over his microphone to you, back in the Day, when he used to read the "funnies" over the airwaves to keep the kiddies laughing and the grown-ups smiling.
The young ones out there won't have a clue to what I am alluding to but even they will get the drift of these my words.
In an age of cardboard cut-outs, mealy-mouthed politicians, fast talking opportunists and styrafoam phonies, your cutting candor and in one's face style is oh so refreshingly refreshing.
That whole gang of failed human beings, the Faux Chancellor in particular, living off the Public dole inside the Tweed Courthouse can't hold a candle to you.
If anyone can figure out a way to combine the Office of Mayor and the Office of the schools Chancellor into one line on the Ballot, you will have my vote (and twice).
One day, in the long, long distant future, when some advanced Civilization discovers there once existed people called Bloggers, they will dig up this latest verbal "homerun" and will all agree that of all those who professed to be "spinners of words", you were the REAL thing.
Never, ever stop because where the "Duck" would we all be without you, Good Sir, (in this climate of human rats, drunk with power), to tell it like it is.
_________________________________
You don't have to wait until 2012. In November you can start by not voting for bought and paid for Andrew Cuomo. He will be the very first Democrat I vote against. Maybe I'll write in none of the above. Why don't we get that option as a default?
ReplyDeleteYou know NYC Ed, you are right. What is Lazio's stance? Still hoping against hope that Cuomo us giving lip service to the deformers.
ReplyDelete