Lair Davis

I have come to realize that the part of San Diego I miss most is the politics! For so many years it was nothing if not predictable. Finally, it has become “interesting,” to say the least!

If I still lived in your city, I might become a political activist again.

The last time I worked on a political campaign in San Diego, it was 1988 and Neil Good was running for the city council. He lost by a very slim margin, thanks to the gay-baiting tactics of that beloved liberal Bob Filner. I am still waiting to hear an apology from Congressman Filner for that despicable act. It would be wise, however, not to hold our breath while waiting.

Prior to Neil’s run, I campaigned on behalf of Maureen O’Connor when she ran against “liberal” Republican Roger Hedgecock. The gay community inexlicably went strongly for Hedgecock, totally fooled by that charletan. A small portion of the lesbian community and a mere handful of gay men worked for Maureen. We lost that time, but won a couple of years later after Hedgecock was tossed out of office.

Let’s not hold our breath waiting for apologies from all those good gay activists who during that election campaign back in the early 1980s convinced the gay community that it should support Hedgecock. Politicians, whether in office or mere “citizen politicians” and “community leaders,” are not given to apologizing when they do something obscene, irrational, immoral or just plain dumb. They just go on to err another day, not a bit the wiser for their earlier transgressions. Blame yourself for not having held them accountable.

Before the presidential election last November, I got so disgusted with Kerry and the Democratic Party that I re-registered as an independent and then — for the first time in my life — didn’t even cast a vote for President. I thought Kerry was worse than awful. I just could not bring myself to vote for such a ridiculously vacuous non-entity.

After 44 years of voting solidly Democratic in election after election, I absolutely refuse to be a Democrat any longer until that party decides what I stands for. It stands for nothing at the moment, except perhaps something called “Republican Light.”

Since Howard Dean has been elected chairman of the Democratic Party, I am holding out hope that he can turn the party around and I (and many others) will be able to return. Chances are good, however, that he will be castrated like so many have been before.

Politics is as interesting here in Costa Rica as it is in San Diego. The country’s last President is recently out of jail after having served almost a year in “preventive detention” prior to trial on corruption charges. Another former President still spends his days and nights in jail. Yet another recent President is on the run.

This is the first time such a thing has happened in Costa Rica’s history. Such shenanigans are common elsewhere in Latin America, but not here! Costa Ricans are very embarrassed by what their most recent presidents have done.

Although all three presidents were elected with huge majorities, over 90 percent now believe they deserve jail for their kickback crimes. Even at the height of exposure of Nixon’s Watergate shenanigans, not that large a percentage of the United States electorate would have put Nixon in jail.

There will be a presidential election in Costa Rica next February, and the campaigning has begun. Former President Oscar Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for thumbing his nose at Ronald Reagan and mediating an end to Reagan’s Contra War against the ruling Sandinistas in Nicaragua back in the ’80s (when Arias first served as president), is running for a second term.

Most interesting is the fact that the traditional two political parties that have rotated power between themselves in Costa Rica for decades, are both in danger of deconstructing because of the scandals involving their Presidents.

Oh, if only the same thing might happen to the Demolicans and Republicrats in the United States!

Six elected legislators from the Libertarian Party, along with a few legislators from other parties, are currently holding the balance of power in the Costa Rica National Assembly. There appears to be a distinct possibility that the coming presidential election might produced the first Libertarian president in world history.

Ah, politics! It isn’t quite as interesting as a good Major League baseball season and certainly not as interesting as World Cup football, but it’s not too bad as a spectator sport. I just don’t take it more seriously than that these days. It isn’t as if anything really changes because of politics, y’know?