As he affected my life, for without Jerry it is highly unlikely I come to live here. Which means so many things, like having never met my wife, just to name one. But in truth countless friends of mine, and friends of theirs, made their way to this coast because of Jerry. Much of my life has been affected by his, a man I never came close to meeting.
He transcends music, and was representative of so much what San Francisco and the greater Bay Area have come to mean. I am hopeful the Bay Area retains some semblance of what it was like when Jerry lived and breathed in these parts.
There will never be another.
On the other side of all that was good, it's the anniversary weekend of the final act of another famous Californian, the disgraced President, Richard M. Nixon. It was August 8, 1974 when he resigned from office.
There's not much I can say about Nixon that has not been said already, so I won't bore you in an area I'm not completely versed in.
However, I will bore you with something else tangentially related, which if you follow the news, read facebook, or engage in message board banter, you likely encountered the last 24 hours or so. The puppet-like refrain from idiot conservatives who say things like, "Obama is worse than Nixon ever was!"
It is to be expected. It is stupid. It is ignorant. It is to be expected. If conservatives are one thing, it is predictable (and dumb).
I'm not going to point out how false comments like these are because it only furthers a pointless conversation that is a waste of time, which is what conservatives hope to achieve. The debate itself gets them closer to a hoped for equivalence. But I will point out WHY this is said, if it's not entirely obvious already.
Conservatives look at politics as a money making opportunity, when not being used as a vehicle to advance some religious ideology (yes, these things often go hand in hand as well). They have been on the losing end of most political scandals in modern times, which is why you'll always hear about blowjobs in the oval office, and other not-so-scandalous scenarios. In fact, every false-scandal is raised up to the level of a high crime in the HOPE something can come of it. It's like death by a thousand cuts, and guilt by association. For if you can accuse people of everything, and one thing does stick, they all the other accusations have to be RECONSIDERED! That's their game. Unfortunately for the part of the moronic, their guy Nixon committed a major crime, and left the White House in disgrace. Since that time everything has been labeled Thisgate, Thatgate, Othergate, which is so incredibly annoying, but probably even more so for the party responsible for the Watergate burglary, and all that comes with it.
Republicans have tried for years to even clear the names of those involved with Nixon and Watergate, even going so far as to make G. Gordon Liddy an American hero and patriot in more modern times. It's embarrassing. They want to scrub the past cleaner than a Ben Roethlisberger bathroom. And can you blame them? Politics is a money-making business to them, which is usually what gets them into trouble in the first place, but that's hardly the point.
The point is this: Republicans gave us Nixon. They gave us Reagan. They gave us George W. Bush. With these presidents have comes a lot of debts, deficits, wars, and lies. Tax cuts don't work, wars don't create democracies, cheaters get caught, the rich get richer, etc. Yet most recently they gave us Bush, who was by far the worst President/Leader of any first world nation I can think of. And since the conservatives/Republicans KNOW he's the cause of most of our problems CURRENTLY, they have needed to lash out in defense. They want revenge for being told how awful they are for voting Bush in. They want revenge for being called morons. They want revenge for taking it on the chin as long as they did, even if they deserved it. They are angry Democrats and liberals constantly pointed out how awful Bush was/is. So they want revenge. They want their turn. Even if it's not warranted or earned. They they believe they have a right to give it back just as hard as they took it, even if it's illogical. Yet logic has never been their game.
Whether the revenge is deserved, or the ire comparable, is not relevant to them. Facts don't matter. What matters is simply revenge. I cannot say it enough. Wanting to make politics a game. Wanting to make sure they can steal dollars from constituents bank accounts. They need Obama to be worse than Nixon. They need Obama to be worse than Bush. They need this because it's their industry, and it's their ego.
They need their puppet-like minions to become keyboard warriors, tackle facebook and twitter, slam Obama, compare him to Hitler, make him worse than Nixon. They need all of it. Any of it true? Of course not. That's hardly relevant, or the point. They'll have the fights on social media, but not one of them could truly engage in hard facts regarding what would make Obama worse than Nixon or Bush. They can't do it because it's wholly untrue. It's laughable. They're laughable.
So when you hear some shmuck saying "Obama is worse than Nixon" or "Obama is worse than Bush" , recognize you're talking to a sad, butt-hurt, likely white, male, and angry human being, who cannot face up to the realities of this world. A world where his kind is still in charge, but not enough for their liking.
A person who is so jaded and clueless as to not be taken seriously.
