MY OWN PURPLE-COLORED SOAPBOX

It seems like now is the time when everyone starts to think about the upcoming Presidential election. Seems like everyone and their brother has an opinion on this year’s crop of politicos. I even saw in the most recent Spectator, using election-like platforming to expound on his views for what the wine world needs (which I astonishingly agree with him on), and the recent Wine Blogging Wednesday topic of what will you drink after George W. leaves office. (I personally will go for something French).

I try not to inject my own political leanings into the fray here at the store because you don’t want to alienate anyone – hey, it’s a business, and we want to sell to everybody – that’s capitalism in a nutshell. But whoever you want to vote for, my only soapbox moments will be to question every last detail of your candidate’s stance on the ISSUES. Forget the scuttlebutt and media sensationalizing, what is painfully evident is that the economy sucks, we’re bogged down in Iraq, we don’t have enough troops in Afghanistan, Russia is puffing up its chest, there is always a lot of chaos in the Middle East, jobs are disappearing, and our government – on both sides of the aisle – won’t take their heads out of the Special Interest groups’ hoo-ha’s to do anything relevant and worthwhile about it.

It doesn’t take a genius to see there is a BIG problem, but it seems there aren’t any politicians willing to step up and make the tough calls – the ones the corporations don’t want to hear. It’s a mess, and though the upcoming Elections will be historic, don’t let that all fool you – take control and ask those running the tough questions, make them accountable for their parties’ failures, and tell them to get the job done right and right now, or find some other fools to aggravate.