Albert Einstein’s quote: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results,” is germane to this discussion because our choice of leaders for the past seventy-five years exposes a pattern.

We elect a leader identical to the previous trainwreck – with few exceptions.

There are a few anomalies like Prez #45 – a great leader but not too personable. Many called him an unsophisticated bully, but he was a great leader who did extraordinary things for this country. Fortunately, he was not a politician, so many hated him. He made his money the old-fashioned way – working and beating the system, unlike many congressional mis-representatives and politicians.

Interestingly, my reading of history shows that most genuinely great leaders were bullies who accomplished extraordinary things for their country’s and citizens. Leadership does not require one to be likable, just not a total asshole. Sure there were a few monsters, but they were still leaders in the truest sense.

There is a saying that our choices are the lesser of two evils. Unfortunately, America is constantly required to choose between the evil of two lessers in most cases.

Our process for proposing and elevating an individual to candidate status is never about substance but popularity. The selectee is always subsidized by a major political party, backed by populist media, and is usually catastrophic. They are rarely independently funded liberals.

We’ve recently traded an excellent leader for Bungles the Clown. Look how well that’s working so far. This should be a salient example and sufficient proof, but no! We haven’t learned any lesson – at all.

So, by definition, we are insane, and I expect the midterm elections to bear out my assertion.

Here we are, penetrating the second disastrous year of a four-year sentence with Bungles the Clown sinking the ship of state. We’re looking to the midterm elections to extinguish the dumpster fire with a bucket of gasoline. The conflagration started by the politically partisan press to obscure their failed policies and decisions. We still haven’t learned that the media doesn’t give a flying tinkers damn about us or this country. Their only allegiance is to money.

So here we go again…

Whether we have a great leader or an abysmal leader – the media don’t care because they make money either way. And depending on who is paying the most, they will even destroy this country in the process.

So here we are again.

Don’t believe me? They did precisely that in the 2020 election. It was a paid political program to sink one leader in favor of another. It wasn’t a decision for better leadership. It wasn’t about what was better for the country. It was about sinking the shunned leader’s ship. Ok, it’s a terrible paronomasia. We let our dislike of a single person destroy our country.

Have we learned anything from this? I seriously doubt it.

Here we go again.

I wonder if many people absorb the concept of campaign speeches and their rhetoric. Our problem is our unfailing, inexhaustible gullibility and optimism. Maybe it’s memory or our lack of focus. It is definitely our attention span. Oh, look, a kitty…

We actually believe that their stump-speech promises will come true. We have faith that this candidate will follow through and save our country, end the Wuhan pandemic, forgive student debt, repay the money stolen from Social Security, or save the country by spending money we don’t have to solve problems they created.

Don’t worry; it’s free!

Does this ever happen?

We are quixotically human.

So here we go again…

I feel more like Don Quixote all the time – tilting that the windmills of stupidity and apathy. It’s frustrating for those who keep belaboring a message that no one cares to hear. But you see, I care enough about this country and my liberty to keep beating the drum and screaming WAKE UP, hoping a few will listen! Am I insane? Probably…

So here we are again.

There are many ways to sink a leader’s ship, and we’ve mastered them all. In reality, the opposing party has discovered the best way to derail a candidate’s chances is the same tactic used by despots and tyrants throughout history. The ploy unified Germany in the late 1920s.

* Find the biggest problem facing the country.

* Find an appropriate individual or group to blame.

* Blame them for all the country’s ills and problems.

* Use the media to corroborate and spread the lies openly and continually.

* Keep up the pressure.

* Reap the rewards.

Eventually, the lies are perceived as truth, and even the undecided, exasperated by the struggle, will join the haters and fall in line.

Germany blamed the Jews and other ethnic undesirables for all of her problems. China condemned the Uyghurs. Venezuela blamed capitalism. Argentina faulted the wealthy. Russia accused the Czar.

The result in all of them was that the populous fell in line – just like the socialist sheeple of America did with the Hate Trump campaign proffered by the Democrat-Socialist party.

Fortunately for America, the results are not as catastrophic for conservatives as for undesirable German ethnicities. Although, our dumpster fire is still raging out of control. It ain’t over yet.

Facing the midterm elections to replace those nasty democrat-socialists with a new crop of snake-oil carpetbaggers is a rerun of the wash-rinse-repeat cycle.

So here we go again.

Nothing changes.

We listen to the rhetorical promises – planks in the platform, regarding the qualifiable averaging, not the average return invested on the sliding scale of quantifiable specifics, but the specific tangible asset values borrowed, not lent. “That’s what I firmly believe and will do when I get to congress.” ” More pot in every chicken!”

So here we go again.

The following is an open question, one to which I do not expect an answer or response, but one I ask that you consider carefully.

What has our leadership done for this country in the past twenty-two years – from 2000 to today?

Are we better or worse than the previous twenty years – from 1980 through 2000?

I ask that you look and think objectively.

One Representative has been in the House for fifty-nine (59) years. The oldest retired at age ninety-one (91).

One senator served for over fifty-one (51) years. The oldest senator is eighty-eight (88) years old.

These people are a wealth of experience, knowledge, and a historical trove of information, but how many people over the age of sixty-five can easily change their minds or are willing to entertain an opposing opinion, or can they even remember why they went into the kitchen? These are the people running our country. Our eighty-three-year-old president slurs his words, has to use a script – and still gets lost – and can’t find a coherent sentence with a flashlight and a net, and… hasn’t made the right decision in over fifty years.

My point is that leadership is experiential, not chronological. It is about doing things correctly and well, then using that experience for good and to make things better – not to hang on as long as you can. It would be nice if that experience included some successful guesses.

Wisdom combines knowledge and experience with a few hard failures to keep you honest. That’s the benefit of age – living through your mistakes.

Wealth does not imbue you with wisdom, knowledge, or intelligence. It’s only an accumulation of material stuff that has no bearing on your ability to lead, yet we look to billionaires as gods with all the answers. Consider how these people accrued these possessions; you’ll think and feel differently. You’ll realize that they are NOT the people we need running this country. We need leaders, not thieves, although thieves are present in every government.

Not all wealthy people are thieves and crooks, but the allure of money and power can corrupt even the most resolute.

Who are we likely to choose for the midterm elections?

Here we go again.

Our ship of state is on the rocks with Captain Bungles the Clown at the helm, ice cream cone in hand, relating imaginary stories about Corn-Pop and his days riding the rails or driving a truck. His decisions leave America open to ridicule, damage, and attack as our ship drags the bottom. His advisors – his crew, give him horrible advice that damages the country, impacting the globe. If the world were flat, he would sail us off the edge.

His first mate, Cackles, wanders the decks pissing off the passengers. She sits leaned back in her VP chair, barking orders that no one attends as her staff of rats deserts the ship. Her directions are as vacuous as she is.

The leadership in this country is sinking us fast. We need complete restaffing from the top down. Waiting for congress to unify the country is like hoping to extinguish a forest fire by pissing on it.

Anyone waiting for the midterm elections to save this country is seriously deluded – insane – mental. We’ve tried this all before with the same results – we haven’t moved forward since the end of WWII. In fact, we’re nearly at the same point as when it started.

Do we need another global conflict to unify this country?

Bungles the Clown tried that with the Wuhan Pandemic – that worked out well. Didn’t it…

So here we go again.

February 7, 2022

~ The Author ~
Charles R. Dickens was born in 1951, is a veteran of the Vietnam, for which he volunteered, and the great-great grandson of the noted author, whose name he shares.

He is a fiercely proud American, who still believes this is the greatest country on the planet, with which we’ve lost control and certainly our direction. He grew up in moderate financial surrounding; were not rich by any stretch, but didn’t go hungry – his incredibly hard working father saw to that. As most from that era, he learned about life from his father, whose story would take too long to tell, other than to say that, he is also a fiercely proud American; a WWII and Korean war, veteran Marine.

Charlie was educated in the parochial system which, demanded that you actually learn something, and have capability to retain it before you advance. He attended several universities in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree, and chased the goose further to a master’s, and has retained some very definite ideas about education in this country.

In addition, Charlie is a professional (struggling) blues guitar and vocalist – a musician. This is his therapy career. Nothing brings him as much joy as playing music, and he wishes that he could make a living at it… maybe some day!