An American Tune...

"Anybody who thinks that it doesn't matter who's President has never been drafted and sent off to fight and die in a vicious, stupid war on the other side of the world - or been beaten and gassed by Police for trespassing on public property - or been hounded by the IRS for purely political reasons - or locked up in the Cook County Jail with a broken nose and no phone access and twelve perverts wanting to stomp your ass in the shower. That is when it matters who is President or Governor or Police Chief. That is when you will wish you had voted..." - Hunter S. Thompson

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ
The Paz Files

Austin, Texas - The picture above this story of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock on the coast of Massachusetts is one of those peculiarly American icons whose image was always larger than reality. The "rock" is no bigger than a small suitcase, still at about the spot where it was back then, still guarded by a see-through fence with a sign telling visitors not to step on it.

Perhaps that is not your quintessential image of America. To you, it could be The Alamo, or Pearl Harbor or the Sooner Land Grab, or the Empire State Building, or Disneyworld. There are enough of them after our more than 225 years of existence. But, what is today's America? I recall my girls, then very young, merely smiling at Plymouth Rock when we took them back when I wrote for The Boston Globe. They got a bigger kick out of Plymouth Village, the re-enactment of that first settlement, where actors played the parts of the newcomers and did it well.

That's not today's America, however.

No, not even close. Too much noise, perhaps a sign of our progress and our evolution from Young Nation to Aging Wonder. The USA is troubled, in civic rags, everyone grabbing for the rope up to the sinking ship. What's with this country anyway?

Daily, we are bombarded with news of this or that calamity, whether it be a police raid on that Occupy Wall Street camp, or demoralizing drops of the stock market, or strange news from Europe about its role in the falling global economy, or about or sad-sack politicians, especially the lot now posturing itself as Republican pretenders to the White House prize.

It is one bad frame after another, images of unrest and distrust and, yes, public disgust. Who to blame? Is it as simple as to say it is the rich, as do the Occupiers? Can you side by the poor on everything? Do you bank on politics to save the day? Are you one of those dreamers still believing the government will come to your rescue?

There is another national election a year from this month. The choice will be between current President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and a Republican that will come from the seven aspirants now pushing for the GOP nomination. At first glance, it would seem to be a no-brainer: the man in the White House is an educated, no-nonsense pragmatist who gets it. His opposition seems bent on turning the clock back to another time in America, a time when only some in the room got free pass to the water cooler, when only some were served by the badge.

But, it's true: we live in a strange time.

How else could we endure seeing some of these Republican idiots, like adulterer Newt Gingrich believing he could ever be president. Not even if he closes his $1 million revolving account with high-dollar jeweler Tiffany & Co.! Black businessman Herman Cain? He's never set foot in Plymouth Village, nor does he likely want to. But allegations of fondling women not his wife will not deter him from insisting his presidential timber. Not even close, Herman. Here, let me show you Libya on the map.

The others are in the same bloat, with the exception of former Masachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who, if looked-at closely, is a middle-of-the-road Republican and not the wild-eyed Right Winger the party seems to want at present. Romney wouldn't be bad, although he still has the Mormon thing to overcome, as does the only other sane GOP candidate, Jon Huntsman, ex-governor of Utah. No, neither will get a fair shake on that count. Not when the Republican Party desperately wants a zealot like Rick Perry, the Texas governor who can't remember much of anything. Perry's bid for the presidency is odd. He called for secession of Texas from the union last year and he promisies to abolish a slew of federal agencies if elected. What America is he after?

We are a nation of Big Thinkers. We want the best of everything, from bottled water to vehicles. We are the USA. We may be down to China in world currency, but it's still early in the game. We may have as many poor citizens as Mexico, but we allow them into our air-conditioned malls. We may have less jobs than India, but we offer our citizens a cornucopia of state and federal aid. We may import our oil and tennis shoes, but we drive hard and jog daily.

What America do you see?...

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