That’s of course the classic line from Star Wars with Obiwan responding to Han Solo complaining about following that “foolish old man.” It’s an endearing line, but I’m using it today to explain the state of our politics, and in not so much of an endearing way.

I am middle-aged. I’ve voted in every presidential primary and election since 1980. In each election cycle, as mainstream media coverage became more commercialized, the internet has picked up the slack. So today, even though the media really isn’t presenting anything that can be considered to be an unbiased, presenting only facts of who is running for president; that information is none the less more available to the average voter now than at any other time in history. The internet and social media is a great tool for those willing to, and able to use in a fact gathering (and common sense) manner to determine who is trying to lead them and whether they deserve your support.

This year, in my humble and honest opinion, we have had from the Republican Party the most pathetic, clownish group of candidates in American history running for the position of President. Even with the obvious bias from the media in their coverage, they couldn’t put lipstick on these pigs. The debate format was a clown show and the questions and responses got more clownish with each airing. We have been dealing with fools running for President on the Republican side. And now we have the biggest fool of them all about to accept the nomination next week in Tampa. I don’t say this lightly, Mitt Romney is a fool. But to take you back to the title of this rant, “Who’s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?”

None of these candidates would have never made it on stage were it not for the support and consent of the Tea Party who have taken over the Republican Party. Mitt Romney, who already was a proven and consonant liar, flipped flopped to pretend to be just as whacked out as the Tea Party to get the most delegates to take the nomination. The Tea Party are fools.

They do not understand what they pretend to represent. They do not understand how our country was founded, how the Constitution was created and modified over the years, they do not understand what it means to be a Christian, nor do they understand that there is nothing inherently evil with being a liberal, progressive, or worse yet, a socialist. As I mentioned in an earlier rant, they get these confused with communism and fascism, forgetting that this country was actually founded under liberal and socialist values, that were incorporated into a capitalistic society. But they are fools who only listen to what they are told by Fox, without doing their own true and diligent research into the facts.

That would be all were it not for the fact that although the Tea Party is today the “base” of the Republican Party, in reality they do not really represent the majority of the party. The GOP represents less than a third of the registered voters in this country and the Tea Party fools represent a minority of that minority. So, how did Mitt Romney, the lying fool he is proven to be, be the presumptive nominee? Because the rest of the Republican Party either stayed home during the primaries, or voted for the fools being presented to them out of peer pressure. So the rest of the Republican Party are as foolish as the Tea Party.

But it doesn’t end there. As I just mentioned, the Republicans only represent less than a third of the registered voters. Polling today shows that on specific issues and specific groups of registered voters, President Obama leads on just about every facit by comfortable margins. He leads on National Defense, he leads on Medicare and Medicaid, he leads on Healthcare, he leads on economics, he leads with women, minorities, LGBTS. And yet putting everything together, he is either just ahead or just behind Romney overall. The race is still too close despite everything that is easily searchable out there to educate people on who Mitt Romney is; what his lies are, his refusals to answer questions of concern to the people, and his history as a failed governor of Massachusetts and CEO of Bain, that did not create jobs here, but did a fine job destroying them here and creating jobs overseas. It’s out there, but people either aren’t availing themselves to that information, don’t understand that information, ignore the truth of that information. In short, too many Americans are fools. It’s the only explanation as to why this race is too close.

I do not support the President on everything he has done. I believe we should have pulled out of Afghanistan at the same time we pulled out of Iraq. I didn’t agree with extending the Bush tax cuts, I didn’t agree with some of his acts that he signed off on that the Bush administration began, I didn’t agree with him placing Napolitano as head of Homeland Security. That being said, he did prevent the nation from falling into another Great Depression, he tried to get some regulations back in play with banking, he got us a good start with the Affordable Care Act, he’s made cost-effective use of military and intelligent resources to kill Osama bin Laden and other leaders of Al Qaeda, he eliminated Don’t ask, Don’t Tell, he’s done some good too. He’s done more good than bad in my opinion.

I would think overall, if people look at the individual accomplishments as simply accomplishments, they would agree. But instead, many of them won’t accept the accomplishments because they are attached to the name of Barack Hussein Obama, a black man in the White House. Yes, I believe the reason the race is still close is that we have far too many people in this country who think more on racial views than what’s best for the country. They are fools.

But I’m not finished. Though I don’t believe the majority of the country is racist, not enough of those who aren’t, are holding the racists accountable for their small-minded views. Whether it’s out of fear, conflict avoidance, no matter. Those who know better need to call out those who don’t. So, although the majority of the country aren’t Tea Party, aren’t GOP, aren’t racist, we are none the less foolish for not working to change for the better and supporting the best man for the job based on his accomplishments and ability.

We are foolish for allowing obstructionist idiots to be elected to Congress in 2010 due to not showing up to vote and letting the bigger fools send those fools to office. We are the fools. It’s time for us to get smart and help ourselves out.