I’ve often referred to the Dauo Report to check out well-written blogs on the left and the right.   It’s truly a good site for getting a glimpse of what people are thinking.  Here’s a snapshot of what blogs on the right are thinking these days:

• How will the GOP remove the stigma of the Foley scandal?
• Kim Jong Il is furious he’s been ignored by the world community lately
• The myopic Democrats have nothing to contribute to solving the nation’s problems
• There’s a tiny chance that the President might consider sending more troops to Bagdad
• Bill Frist says that we can’t militarily beat the Taliban in Afghanistan—he says, in effect, pack up the troops and bring them home.
• The President just signed a bill outlawing internet gambling, which is a total waste of time.
• The editorial that the Washington Times wrote demanding Dennis Hastert to step down in response to the way the Foley scandal was handled “is completely and utterly irrational.”
• The Republicans are looking weak on fighting terrorism, in light of Frist’s comment regarding Afghanistan.
• ABC knowingly withheld information about Rep. Foley.  GOP leadership didn’t cover up for Foley, but the media is to blame.
• Foley is a sicko, but the Democrats have been involved in “real”  sexual scandals.  And don’t forget about “Pat Kennedy’s dui/rehab situation.”
• The stock of Al Qaeda has sunk so low in the middle east that they are likely to try to do something spectacular.
• How dare the Democrats criticize President Bush for refusing to talk with the Iranians and the Syrians.  The Democrats aren’t even willing “to talk to Republicans about reforming Social Security.”
• The Iraq failures aren’t the fault of Jay Garner, but of Rumsfeld and Henry Kissinger.
• Democrats are amoral.  They have “a serious illness of the soul that both have become so anti-American; so irrational; and so distorted by hatred that they are willing to sacrifice America — us — and all we stand for to the savages we are fighting.”
• There is probably a lot more of the behavior (like Foley’s) that is likely to be uncovered.

Here’s the conclusion I draw from the total lack of optimism of these blogs on the right: the Republican Party seems to be the second major party in this country that is totally out of ideas and totally out of enthusiasm. 

Name more than a couple national leaders you would consider intelligent or inspiring.  Most of them should have these qualities, yet very few do.  Here’s why most leaders try to get elected: they love to be in power and they love to hear their own blabbering amplified by the national corporate-owned media.  They love to see people bowing down to them an they love to hear people automatically laughing at their mediocre jokes.

At the risk of sounding repetitive, the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of this country is no surprise, given the corrupt system in place for electing our leaders.  Our alleged leaders are simply not the best or brightest people in this country.   As a result, we have a national state of malaise, scandal and corruption, punctuated by unnecessary crises.  Most of our national hand-wringing could be prevented if only we could elect intelligent and dedicated leaders.  

I know lots of smart, honest and inspiring people, but very few of them are willing to subject himself or herself to our corrupt election system, whereby one spends half of one’s time holding out one’s hand for contributions and making vague promises in return.  And where does most of that money come from?  Corporations.  Who does the system most often benefit?  Corporations. In my opinion, we should be funding state and national elections with public money, not private money. 

Until we reform our election system, we will never adequately address any other political problem.  Until we reform our corrupt election system from the roots up, we will not have leaders worth listening to