The Slimy Underbelly of the World of Politics. . .


The Wrong Valuable Lesson

I got hooked on politics in 1950s as a high school student in Fort Benton, Montana. A teacher thought we needed to understand how election campaigns worked and we all drew names of the men who were running for President of the United States. I drew a man named Estes Kefauver. His campaign slogan was: If you can't remember my name, remember my number-one issue that I'll always fight for:  Birth control. Get it?  Keep-Off-Her". . . Estes Kefauver! He failed to win the nomination from the Democrat Party, and that ended my campaigning, but I have given that teacher a big "thank you" for introducing me to the crime-infected, lying and cheating, slimy underbelly of the world of politics! . . . and it has never failed to show me its worth!

Electing a president is a strange world. It lies and cheats and finally sends the worst - and next to the worst - candidates for us to vote  a yea or nay on. First, the finalists of each Party ends up being the ones who raked in the most money. For some reason, the media will announce we have a choice of two "guys" who just happened to know the most millionaires and billionaires. 

There you have it. How America elects its president. Neat and tidy, no muss, no fuss, the rich wins again! 

And, my teacher, back in the day, could have saved us all a lot of time and effort.  All he had to do was tell us how much more a billion is than a million. . . and we could have figured it all out ourselves!

Opinion by
John Watson




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