JEFF PEARLMAN

JEFF PEARLMAN

The Bad Guy Won

Called my dad this morning from the car.

“Dad!”

“Jeff!”

“Dad, did Greg Ball win?”

Long sigh.

Greg Ball won. I’m not surprised—he’s a Republican in a heavily Republican neck of the woods. But I’m disappointed, because, on a local level, Greg Ball is a Sarah Palin/Rick Perry-level douchebag. He ran for New York State Senate on the issue of illegal immigration, which is a problem in Putnam County on the level of the current dengue fever outbreak. Ball is one of those guys who has no problem plastering a few Hispanic faces on a poster, or in a commercial, and tagging them ILLEGAL!! (Then later finding out their names are Murray and Leo Schwartz. Oops). He literally wants to have senior citizens stop having to pay school taxes (which, while appealing, is ludicrous). Mostly, he wants government out, out, out of lives. That Boys & Girls Club that depends of federal and/or state funding? Fuck ’em.

But this is 2010, and people are angry. I get it. Not sure who, exactly, they’re angry at, and why the Church of George W. Bush is suddenly back and swinging. But it is what it is.

On the bright side, it’s 11:23 am, I’m sitting across from my beautiful wife at Panera and the bagel was delicious (toasted). Politics is cyclical—good times come and go, promises are made and broken. Today’s wins are tomorrow’s losses are the next day’s wins. On and on it goes …