© 2024 KMUW
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Richard Crowson: Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!

Recently I had occasion to dust off and update my resume. As it usually does, the whole thing once more gave me a bad case of “the squirms.” As I sat there pumping up my accomplishments in an attempt to make myself sound like a cross between Dr. Jonas Salk and Donald Trump, I couldn’t help thinking about certain people who brag themselves into a state of sainthood practically 24/7.

I’m talking, of course, about political candidates. Listening to excerpts from the latest Republican presidential debates, I was struck by the amount of boastfulness that is required from each candidate, just to keep themselves from being overshadowed by the rest of their bragging cohorts, all of whom sound a little bit like the little rooster who believed his own crowing made the sun come up every morning.

All you have to do is go to factcheck.org the morning after one of these rooster debates to find out how many self-inflating claims they have made. And even more interestingly, how many of those claims are gross exaggerations. Let’s face it, folks. An exaggeration is a lie.

So right off the bat we have a bunch of politicians making enough claims about their own holiness to shame your average Pharisee, who then turn right around and in the same breath commit the sins of boastfulness and lying, and expect us voters to overlook these character flaws and elect them to public office! And we do! Time after time we voters elect these puffy-chested little roosters to crow and make the sun come up. Amazing.

So at least I have one claim I can make on my own resume that ought to impress the heck out of any prospective employer: I am not now nor have I ever been a candidate for political office.

If I may brag a little: Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Richard Crowson is not only a editorial commentator for KMUW. He's also a cartoonist, an artist and a banjo player.