Country Before Party and (Some) Paesani

"It would be easier to pay off the national debt overnight
than to neutralize the long-range effects of our national stupidity."
-- Frank Zappa

The Zappaphile also known as my Darling Husband is off to vote in the Republican primary here in Florida.*

Unlike many (if not most) of his fellow Republicans, R was against the invasion of Iraq from the very beginning. In fact, he can most accurately be described as a true, Old-School conservative. For those too young to remember, this is a similar political philosophy to that held by the late Frank Zappa--in other words, he feels government should stay out of his business, brain, and bedroom, and that American tax dollars are better spent helping Americans in America than on profligate nation-building and the wanton invading of sovereign lands. Which enterprises, he believes--cynically, accurately--were and are about enriching defense contractors and cronies under the guise of "spreadin' freedom and preventin' nookyular proliferationizing". At our expense.

(What a noble, if quaint, version of conservative thinking, huh? Where have you gone, Mr. Zappa, sir? Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you...)

Anyway, Dear Husband plans to support the Democratic nominee this November, having supported Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, even displaying huge Republicans For Kerry banners on our house, which is flanked on either side by Serious Republicans of Faith whose Borrow-Spend-Invade! philosophy aligns in perfect symmetry with that of the modern neocon. (At least, the banners were displayed until local goons tore them down the day Bush came to St. Pete for a fundraising event at our neighbor's house down the street. I suppose city officials couldn't have the POTUS look out of his bulletproof SUV as it rolled through the isle and lay eyes on such baldfaced evidence of dissent within his own party--certainly not right before dinner.)

So, considering the list of Republican choices he faces today, and knowing how proud he is of his hometown and ancestral heritage alike, I am that much more appreciative of R's intense individualism and logical, autodidactic approach to politics as well as life itself.

And even though I'm certain, given his disdain for Kool-Aid-drunk party-liners in particular and slow-witted sheep in general, that he would never do it anyway, I wish to thank the Italian-American Republican man from New York City for not voting for the Italian-American Republican man from New York City.

*For one of the, ah, least likely long shots in the history of elections.

Also at Cogitamus.