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The voice on the telephone Saturday morning was pleasant
but insistent. This is the National Research Center, and
we're asking how you intend to vote in the Republican
primary.
Was I ever excited. I've always felt left out of the American political process. All I ever got to do was vote. Now I could do something significant and meaningful.
If the primary election were held today, would you
vote for George Bush or Pat Buchanan?
Mexico.
That answer was not on her form. Should I put you
down as undecided?
she asked.
I don't like to be put down, and I definitely wasn't
undecided. Let's just say that I will not vote for
George Bush unless you hold a gun to my head.
That seemed a safe answer, although matters may reach that point soon. Bush's no-knock War on Drugs just shot and killed a Grand Junction man in his own house. At a nearby front, a Delta County jury last week concluded that marijuana surveillance helicopters had violated two families' civil rights by lurking over their homes.
More gross violations of our liberties are imminent, since the DEA recently formed a Western Slope Task Force to coordinate the snooping and shooting, and Bush, who likes wars, has said he'll do whatever it takes to be re-elected.
The pollster moved on. If the general election were
held now, who would get your vote?
I know a lot of people who would answer Jerry
Brown,
but they would whisper quite softly and hope
nobody heard.
As one said, Being for Jerry Brown is like saying
that you believe in UFO's and the reincarnation of Elvis.
Nobody would ever take you seriously again. If Albert
Einstein had been a Jerry Brown supporter, we wouldn't have
nuclear bombs: 'Al, do really expect us to believe all that
weird stuff about energy and matter being equivalent? And
what's this far-out crap about time dilation? Why don't you
just go back to your past-life-energy-channel crystal, and
leave us alone? We've got real things to worry
about.'
Brown's Governor Moonbeam
reputation illustrates
how the media warp reality. The people who mock Brown are
the same people who told us that another former California
governor, Ronald Reagan, was a sane, practical fellow.
Never mind that Reagan never made a move until his wife had
checked his horoscope, that he believed that trees cause
air pollution, that he trusted bankers not to be greedy if
no one was watching.
The average airport Moonie has more common sense than Ronald Reagan ever displayed, but the media have decreed that Reagan is respectable, and Brown isn't.
Not that this mattered to me. I always vote a
straight ticket when I can,
I told the pollster.
Republican? Democratic?
Libertarian. That way there's no chance I'll ever
feel responsible.
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