The Grapes Of Wrath

"Who do we shoot?" This scene from the classic, "The Grapes of Wrath" movie has crossed my mind numerous times over this latest political season.

My wife and I love old movies - I am more of a devotee to black & white than she: I am of the opinion that if a movie was created after the early 1950's it's probably not worth much. She, on the other hand, has more toleration to movies put out on up to the 1970's. Perhaps I will spend more time on this subject later, for now let me just point out that I think the old movies said more about human nature than the new ones and they often provide invaluable illustrations for current thoughts and emotions.

The "who DO we shoot?" scene reflected my frustration with the Republican party of late.
I have wondered - just who is making decisions and recruiting candidates for the Republican party? And where do I go to complain.

For that matter, where WILL conservatives go? I am proud to have cast my first vote for U.S. President for Ronald Reagan and I have voted consistently conservative since. This is due - for the most part - to the fact that the tenets of the movement have reflected the things that are valuable to me. This is true to an even greater extent since my wife and I have children.

Living in the southeastern United States meant that when I began voting in the early 1980's there were very few strong Republicans (if any) in local and state elections. But there were conservative Democrats; they were pro-life, fiscally conservative, strong defense, espoused low taxes, etc. In those instances, I did not mind voting for Democratic candidates, but those days are gone; that party left us "values-voters" behind.

Now, the Republicans are poised to do the same thing. There were no strong conservative candidates in the primaries. And the current candidate has the appearance of only offering lip-service to conservatives.

At this time, I am enjoying the disarray and upheaval among Democrats and have not fully decided how I will vote. It is quite possible that I will opt out of the presidential vote altogether. I know that that action is a default vote for the Democratic candidate but I just don't think I can endorse the present direction of this party.

In the future, I will try and limit my political posts, simply because I tend to trail off on tangents. I also seem to just get irritated - and "getting irritated" was not one of my reasons for beginning this blog. Enjoy the movie.