Back in 1992, Bill Clinton was running against George H.W. Bush. Emerging on the scene was another Texan named Ross Perot. He went on Larry King Live and contemplated running for President of the United States as a Reform Candidate. He believed that both the Democrat and Republican parties were corrupt and sold out to the Global One World Government. Ross “the Boss” talked about “The Giant Sucking Sound” that a policy called NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) would cause, pushing American jobs into Mexico and elsewhere. Ross Perot had both the money and the organization to create a National Party. The Reform Party! Perfect for those of us disgruntled with the two major parties at the time.
Ross was doing very well in the polls, but suddenly was threatened, by unknown forces….that the life of his daughter and family could be put at risk should he continue to run for President. A few weeks before the election, Perot withdrew briefly, but then resumed his quest. Ross got 13% of the vote, which guaranteed that George H.W. Bush, would lose and Bill Clinton would win. Ross got some land access and roads from Dallas to Love Field in return. The Reform Party, remained a viable entity for the 1996 election. Many of us voted for Ross again in 1996, but for all intent and purposes….the Reform party had become a shell of its former self, leaving many uneducated Democrats and curmudgeon Republicans as the only members of what was then to become the “United We Stand ” movement, which became the “Tea Party” many years later.
The last Reform Party candidate we voted for was Bo Grietz a Vietnam Veteran who wanted to bring our captured soldiers home. They made many theatrical movies about this concept with Chuck Norris and Gene Hackman.
The United We Stand folks then wanted to started their own party, which went nowhere. After two miserable terms of Bill Clinton they bit the bullet and voted for “the then very likable” George and Laura Bush. Along came a terrible economy and so came 9/11 and then the Iraq war….Paul Bremer and some very poor decisions for the people of Iraq…….along with going to war in Afghanistan with the Taliban for supporting the Pakistani backed Al-Qaeda – Osama Bin Laden.
George and Laura hung in there based on being their likable selves, however the end came with a combination of Enron (backed by George H.W. Bush – on the original Board of Directors) with Ken Lay and Jeff Skillings and the neverending desire to make every commodity of society “Market Priced”, including all of our basics like Water, Electricity, Natural Gas and Infrastructure. Grey Davis got caught up in this mess and was Recalled in California and replaced by Arnold and Maria.
Newt had already taken control of the Congress and made “Republicants” a normal way of doing business, with name calling and placing false blame considered “just fine behavior”. Higher taxes and the cost of living resulted in the election of Barack Obama and eight years of relative calm. The Republicants realized that their time was soon to be over as a National Party force. Desperate, they brought in the ill fated “Tea Party” radicals into the Republicant camp.
The Great Opportunist – Donnie J. Trump sensed the opportunity to nail a flawed, unlikable – yet capable Hillary Clinton. The gamble paid off and we almost had what the “Tea Party folks” wanted: A Totalitarian America! We are now under the erosive influence of what we might call “Trumpism”…..with many of those living in a world of total “Trumpia Consciousness”.
Pointing out the wrongs in Government is easy. In a big tent you will always find plenty of rats, cockroaches and whores. America has now reached an interesting time in our history. Overpopulation is killing the planet and we need to replace our fossil fuel future with something less polluting.
Hopefully, those of us that still have a fair memory will remember how we got to this point and make choices that will keep our country free and moving freely into the future.
How did Trumpia Happen? Perhaps, as Hillary said: “It takes a village!” Or a couple of very evil Governors, like Abbott and DeSantis? Who knows? The future is not written but belongs to the choices we are willing to make!
Polling at the time established that 5% of the 13% voting for Perot would have voted for Bush if he hadn’t run, 5% for Clinton, 1% for another third party — and 2% wouldn’t have voted at all. Perot isn’t why Clinton won. I’d have to see a credible citation as to the payoff you suggest.
It turned out that no POWs supposedly being held after the end of the war existed. There were some MIAs, but they were truly missing, and Vietnam has repatriated their remains to the U.S. after each was found.
Al Qaeda was primarily Saudi-backed. Pakistan’s security sevice supported the Taliban.
That’s enough for one comment.
Dr. D., Appreciate your comments. In reverse order. Osama Bin Laden escape to Pakistan through the hills and caves of Tora Bora. Had Clinton sent the 82nd Airborne to get him……the rest would have never occurred perhaps. Osama Bin Laden was taken out….where? In Pakistan, not Saudi Arabia! The road from
Pastoonland in Pakistan to Kandahar brought a constant flow of Al-Qaeda or ISIS or whatever you want to name them “Sunni Warriors/Fighters” into Afghanistan for the entire 20 years and was the reason we could not every win in that theater of conflict. Look up the Durand Line and find out how the future of Afghanistan should have been concluded in 2008.
Ross Perot retreived many POW’s that were in Prison Camps and found the remains of many more. Ross did all that on his own buck. We can argue the
numbers of missing POW’s, American Soldiers that Defected to China and Vietnam, The Unaccounted Missing in Action or people that just walked out and became AOL for about 50 years…eh? Approx. 82,000 are still missing today from the Vietnam War! But what do we know? Others say just over 1600 are still missing….you pick. You may want to check your accounting of those lost as well.
We will leave it to you to determine the Statistics of the 1992 Election. All we know is that Ross the Boss got upwards of 19% of the popular vote…even though he withdrew from the race… for three weeks in between.
*How did that SPAM Steamy Photos get on our website? Not one looks like Scarlett Johansen!
Uh, Google controls the ads. If you find one objectionable, let us know; we’ll try to find it, take a screenshot, and tell them that this is not what we want.
*Greg, there was an actual Blog Entry Post which was a long, endless array of controversial photos and Spam. It is gone now….but was up for a few days.
Just click refresh and the irritating ad will be replaced with another irritating ad.
*Along with the Oil Spill…….sounds alot like Damage Control….is on the job.