Carly Fiorina for President? Nah... Don't Think So.

                                                         By Jack Larrison

© Copyright 2015-2019, Jack Larrison & The DICTION AERIE.™   All rights reserved. 


You've come a long way, baby.  Still I've got to say, "Caveat Emptor" all ye Carly-philes...

Though she's certainly a smart and stylish woman, don't follow her too closely, folks; you might get a migraine from this gal.  Now, "the Federal Government can surely destroy the American Dream," she pontificates out on the trial-balloon-festooned campaign trail.  So, do you mean "destroy" in the same way you  obliterated the dreams of thousands at Hewlett-Packard, Ms. Fiorina? 

Look, I love a good horse race, especially when there are candidates of character and grit and original glow on both sides.  But Carly?  Sure, she does have guts and even some intellectual charm... But way deep down, Miz Fiorina is all blow and no show; probably one of the worst tech CEOs of all time.  During her 6-year stint as chief exec of H.P., their stock tanked and lost 50% of its value; while she laid off 30,000 workers.  She was forced to resign and she wafted away into anonymity, where she found few political friends and little respite from fierce media fallout apres' the layoffs. 

Later on, Ms Fiorina worked as a key advisor to John McCain's disastrous 2008 presidential bid.  Yes, she is Stanford-educated, smart and alluring to some, but so what?  So were wives of a couple Third World dictators...

In absolute sincerity, I believe America needs more good women in high office, to offset the huffing and puffing of all the gasbag males who've nearly run Washington DC into a cesspool of gridlock and rancor since the Great Recession.  I would love to see another woman of substance (maybe Liz Warren or Tulsi Gabbard?) toss her hat into the ring and go toe-to-toe with the Dem's Wicked Witch of the East, as well as her nemeses -- the Blowhard Good Ol' Boys Network of the GOP.   But let's get real for just a sec'.... Carly Fiorina is a failed CEO with virtually nothing new to offer.   Zip, nada.

She's little more than a smarter more articulate reinvention of Sarah Palin, who's starting early -- running straight for Veep and catching the Republican Party's early media flak.  Carly Fiorina is just another well-heeled huckster in heels and Prada, this time her sophistry and platitudes flowing from the dark side of the One Percent.  Dark because it's hiding diabolically in plain sight, pretending to care...

Ergo, it'd be wise to invest your own energy and caring elsewhere, sunseekers.  Maybe consider a write-in candidate like Donald.... (Duck).  After reading daily news reports that favor one side or the other, I feel dazed by this gaggle of dunces the Right is trotting out, and by the ominous vacuum of challengers to Bellowing Billary on the Left.  Ergo, I'm seriously thinking of Ol' Mr. Duck about now.  Thus far, as a viable write-in option, The Donald seems to have a statistical edge... for a while.

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MOVING from CARLY to the U.S POLITICAL CLIMATE at LARGE:

Meanwhile, in a related political arena, just wondering, is our 2-party system really as doomed as it seems?  Is this  following verse the anthem of the New Dems (sans huevos to challenge Hillary) and also the prattling pariahs in this Vast New GOP Herd -- "Oh beautiful for specious guys, for somber waves of pain..."  ?  

When will we ever again see a truly serious and inspiring candidate who moves the heart and soul of America the way Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and Reagan did?  No matter whether Dem or Repub, a lawmaker is a leader, when he/she LEADS by example, courage, vision and sacrifice.  Where, oh Lordy Mama, where are our leaders?

Now then, moving stiffly onward -- what's that, you might ask, what's that rank new aroma wafting off the Potomac these days?  Here's the answer... Choosing Rep's and Sen's in post-modern America is now a matter of holding one's nose and deciding who is "least worst".  This MUST be changed if our cherished democracy, the greatest experiment in egalitarian order of all time, is to survive.  We do NOT need another Bush, another Clinton, another prep-school son or daughter of oligarchs to lead this great nation.

As my buddies in Argentina would say, we need a true "Caudillo" -- a charismatic truth-speaking leader who arises from the common ranks, bursting spontaneously onto the scene, propelled by the grit and agony of his or her own people.  NOT propelled by billionaires terrified of taxes draining even a small part of their obscene fortunes, which they are so reluctant to share with the tax man.  Does anybody really think Carly Fiorina (or Ted Cruz or Hillary Clinton) fit this  bill of selfless Caudillo??  Really ??

First things first -- truth in advertising.  We need to balance out and level off the reams of hot air billowing out of the Ultra-Progressive camp as well as the rock-ribbed Right Wing.  That's what makes our democracy a free-for-all and a fascinating mess.  The dignity and power of our system -- in this Post-Modern era -- always somehow seeps out of the malignant mashup of UltraLibs vs. NeoCons, pruning each other's excesses and vanity.

But do not let the media machines bought and sold by these oligarchs like Fiorina, nor the Bushes, the Clintons, the Kennedys, fool you for even one second.   Re' Carly's old stomping ground, H.P., the tech industry tanked, in part, due to the same malevolent manipulations on Wall Street, by a very tightly-knit clique, that eventually brought our entire economy to the brink of ruin.  I believe that Gnarly Carly was and IS a part of that semi-cynical cabal of aristocrats -- Dems and Repubs alike -- who believe that wealth entitles one to rule.  And they will do anything to protect their turf, including manipulating markets, media and emotions.

Contrary to the classical NorthAm proto-fascists (Rockefeller, JP Morgan, Vanderbilt, Carnegie) who ushered in Manifest Destiny -- when pristine ecosystems and indigenous American innocence were steamrolled by the Industrial Revolution -- wealth for many of its nouveau holders only means more efficient, and less conscience-driven, greed.  Gordon Gecko was wrong, sistah Carly.  Greed is NOT good.  Not good at all for the working majority.  Only for the ultra-few, the Clique of Gated Souls.

Now, I must concede I do have dear friends and cherished clients, quite a few actually,  who belong steadfastly  to the One Percent.  They simply can't help it.  Their CPAs assure them this is true.  But like most of us, I vet my friends with time and TLC.  So they've all long ago passed the litmus test of sincere social conscience, community building and living for others rather than self.  Or they would not be my friends.  Some are progressive liberals who rally passionately behind gay marriage, Obama-care and total immigration amnesty.  Others are ultra-conservatives who might applaud the 2nd Amendment and Rand Paul on Monday, then Tuesday write whopping big checks to Sierra Club, Wilderness Society and Greenpeace, then spend their Friday evening at a band boosters meetings in their kids' high school -- and not  the racetrack or the opera. 

Sadly, people of that conscience-driven ilk are an exponentially dwindling minority among the very wealthy.  And whether they lead lives of altruism or not, most of them would no sooner vote for Carly Fiorina than for Humpty Dumpty.   Let's just get real  about that, please. 

Ms. Fiorina was an also-ran before she even left the gate.
 
And frankly, polls and pols aside -- looking at basic human emotions -- most middle-Americans would not trust Carly Fiorina, or anyone like her, any further than they can frisbee a manhole cover.   She is neither of their blood nor breed.

That does not make her a viper nor any clear and present danger to democracy -- only a stiletto-heeled symbol of what's wrong with the entire political system today.

While we're on the topic of political ciphers... What goes for Carly, also goes for Teddy Boy Cruz, who is little more than an early-in-the-campaign hitman, a dancing monkey funded by the right-wing backroom organ grinders (fund-raising czars who grind away in cable-company-ruled media at these organs mostly -- huevos, hearts and brains).  Ted "Liver Lips" Cruz will have his time in the spotlight for a brief few months, at the vanguard of attack on the Dems, to soften up Hillary and her challengers, to galvanize the super-conservative base.  Then once Cruz's temp job is done, and the media have beaten him senseless, and the party czars are through with him, they will toss him on the ash-heap of electoral history like all the other dancing monkeys -- from Ross Perot on the right, to Gene McCarthy on the left.

Remember amigos, contrary to the Manifest Destinarians  ;)  wealth does NOT morally entitle one to rule in a true democracy.  Money only makes it much easier to buy influence and to broker hardcore deals -- compromises to shelter the very aristocracy upon which both parties depend entirely for their daily bread. 

Bottom line: that means Carly Fiorina is no threat to Western Civilization, only a darling du jour in designer duds.  And her rival Ted Cruz is a daffy demagogue who's so blithely unaware of how funny he sounds, that it makes for genuine rib-tickling entertainment.   Mr. Cruz also has no more chance of being nominated by the GOP than Sponge Bob or PeeWee Herman.

So, where do we go from here?... Let's gather as a nation to find, draft and elect a man or woman of character, substance, integrity, passion and vision -- who truly cares about working families -- you know, the "fictional politician,"  the Gregory Peck / Atticus Finch kind of guy, who apparently has yet to be born. 

El Caudillo Clasico...

Speaking of the dearth of which... British poet William Butler Yeats said it best about the future of Western leadership at large -- "And what rough beast  /  Its hour come round at last  /  Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?"  

And, like the wide-eyed kid in Poltergeist warns -- "They're heeere!" 

Election time draws nearer by the day.  Oh man...

CAVEAT EMPTOR, baby!


© Copyright Jack Larrison & The DICTION AERIE.™   All rights reserved.