Published Oct 12, 2006, 3:46pm
It’s a gently mocking tone the mainstream media takes when writing about James Hill. the independent candidate for U.S. Congress in Iowa’s First District. You see, he’s running as a pirate. And of course, that’s some big yucks if you don’t really read about what this guy is saying.
So, let the laughs and guffaws ensue by the smart kids in the mainstream media. Except there’s one problem: Hill gets it — and gets it far better than any of the smarmy inside the Beltway types who spew alleged wisdom.
Hill won’t take money. From anyone. He wants to outlaw lobbyists and he exposes the tactic of politicians of both parties using wedge issues — abortion, gay marriage, etc. — to distract the voters about how they’ve sold out the country to a handful of special interests, largely corporate interests. He has pledged to reveal everything about himself and his life — no secrets.
“The result will bring a more honest open type of person to the race. You will see the false Christians and smarmy trained monkeys recede to the shit-holes they crawled from. This challenge is not to be taken lightly. Can the American voter accept a flawed person or even down right ugly one to represent them? Every day I fight the urge to drink, debauch women out of wed-lock and beat people on the street. One urge I do not have is to sell myself to the highest bidder. I see new accounts every day. These ‘men’ who sell their influence like common whores. Duke Cunningham and his bribe menu sound familiar? William Jefferson with $90,000 k in his freezer ring a bell?,” Hill writes on his Web site.
Like a true pirate, the guy is brutally honest about himself and others:
“I would have your wife right in front of you. I would smoke the last of your glaucoma medication. Then I will surely drink your liquor cabinet dry. However, know this my friend. I will never break an oath to uphold the public trust. My affidavit will be signed in my own blood. A Pirates crimson mark, with real binding effects into my after life. Laugh if you will then ask yourself if you could do it.”
Unlike politicians, left and right, who give lip service to the men and women in the military, Hill really supports them and pulls no punches.
“Every dollar these people raise and give to Politicians could be used to counsel Veterans or supply them with state of the art prosthetics. Put a yellow ribbon on your car if you like and feed your ego. The dollars are better spent with the Disabled American Veterans. over $.90 of every dollar goes to the soldiers. You don't get that percentage from the yellow ribbon sales. Hell, for all we know Al Quieda is selling those ribbons. I am sick of the false patriots. Those who take the huge somes of money and worship the stock market, while paying little attention if dollars are being spent right in the war effort. As for the war itself, if Cheney, Bush and those on the right believe in the cause so strongly we can withdraw our troops then let them fund a mercenary army with their own money. Those of you on the left should know this also. If you have the resources to protest, I'll bet you have the resources to take a soldiers wife or widow grocery shopping.”
Even better, after generations of politicians kissing up to the voter, Hill lays it on the line:
“Can you cast aside Party politics to salvage our democracy?,” he writes on the front page of his Web site. “The democrats and Republicans would be hard pressed to remove the corruptive cash influence from the house. They have both fattened at the trough while ignoring the middle class and working poor in this country.”
As both the Democrats and Republicans have failed us so miserably, maybe the time has come for a party of rugged individuals, 21st century pirates, to come and loot the ship of cynical conventional wisdom, kick out the corporate money, special interest groups and again make the wealthy and powerful accountable and maybe a bit nervous.
James Hill might be the first pirate to run for office. But if this country has any future, we’re going to need a hell of a lot more pirates, and soon.
