A little bit of this, a little bit of that

It is increasingly fascinating to watch politics this season.  For instance, the lowest-rated Republican candidate, according to one poll, with only a one-percent rating, is far and above the most articulate and moderate candidate.  He's the one who said he thought 9-9-9 was the cost of a pizza!  At the front in this ever-changing competition are folks who simply change their position on concerns according to the audience they are addressing at any one time.  As a staunch and unwavering Obama supporter, I frankly don’t much care that the ones with the higher percentages in polls keep shooting their own feet off, but as a lover of my country it is awfully disheartening to watch presumably serious candidates, able to spend millions of dollars to seek the presidency, keep presenting foolishness after foolishness as their positions.  Such as 9-9-9 or 20-20.  And here’s the equally disheartening thought:  they all seem to have so many supporters, who obviously aren’t thinking things through. 

Now, time has taught me that politics is not a dirty word.  Heck, we decide what to have for lunch many times by negotiation and compromise, and that, dear friends, is politics.  But there’s another aspect to life and politics that I have learned as a gardener, particularly a gardener with a strong bulb addition:  the best results I get are from the best bulbs from the best sources.  Stay away from damaged bulbs.

The point is that when we vote, when we make that important choice, when we exercise that all-important privilege of citizenship, it’s that much more important that we are careful in our support, that we make good choices.  Because like so many other ‘ships’, a citizen ship can sink.