Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The Primary Blues


I’m hoping that things quiet down tomorrow.  The phone has been ringing off the hook with robot calls all telling me how bad the other candidate is.  The TV is filled with commercials, mostly ran by Political Action Committees with more money than God, mostly telling us more ugly things about the other guy.  Thank the Lord for the mute button.  To listen to them, one would think they are not fit to be a dogcatcher, which is probably true. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, today is the day for the Michigan primary.   And the last phone call of the day came just 50 minutes before the polls closed, it was Rick, telling me more dirt about Mitt!  The other day, I came home late in the afternoon (most of the calls seem to come at dinner time which is down right tacky) and my daughter took great pride in informing me that I'd just missed the Governor of New Jersey and then sarcastically asked why he was calling me since I don't even like New Jersey.  But it's now over, until the fall when it all starts again...

I didn’t vote today.  I don’t have a dog in this hunt.  I could have voted but I am choosing not to identify with a political party and will wait and vote in November.   Oddly enough, last week I got my 2012 Republican Membership Statement from the Republican National Committee with red letterings indicating my status as inactive/lasped.  That was news to me!  If I ever was a member of the RNC, it would have been before Reagan was in the White House.  Yes, I’ve been voting since 1976.  These days, I dread political parties more than my next birthday party.   

Which brings me to the point of this rant:  “There has got to be a better way to pick a presidential candidate!”   The elections now seem eternal.  They’ve far surpassed the NBA finals in length.  At least one of the candidates this year, who says he is from this state, has been running for President ever since he ran for class president of his preppy kindergarten.  We got to find a way to shorten this process, for it seems to me that it would be better to have politicians spend just a little more time governing than running.  But what do I know?  

15 comments:

  1. I agree with you. I think we need to enact laws that limit the length of a campaign. I am always tired of it by the end of the first week - and this campaign has been especially tiresome.

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  2. I read it's a nasty bedlam right enough.
    I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to politics and unless there is some profoundly local issue I tend to call things. And the bigger the sample the easier. Its the 10,000 and the jar of sweets. In this one, it simply won't matter who they run. It was always Obama's to lose. Even then they would have needed an exceptional fellow. A general. Someone that led a life within a very protective structure. And navy, as in an admiral would not have cut it. While coast guard would, hmm. Such a pity the grandee's of the republicans spend four years with their heads so far up that sunshine was but a memory. A bit like how the dems lost Teddy's seat. How the hell did they manage that one ?. That seat should have had an entailed inheritance to the dems.

    Happy extra day.

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  3. it never fails to amaze me when I hear how much money each candidate spends running for office. I just think of so many other things that could be done with that money!

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  4. I'm with you - I am disenchanted with all the candidates right now. Somehow I dodged the bullet on getting those automated calls - I'm on the Georgia and Federal Do Not Call lists, but I think the politcal calls are exempt from that. I've probably tempted fate now. :)

    I do get the Hello - I'm a professional fundraiser calling on behalf of... calls. I just ask them nicely not to call back. I hate solicitation calls.

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  5. You know... as I read this I tried to feel sympathy for those of you in Michigan but after what we go through down here in Iowa in January, my brain is still politically fried and can't feel much of anything.

    Overall though, I agree with Vince. Unless the economy goes to pot again sometime this summer, it is Obama's race to lose. The real contest is if the Republicans can wrestle away control of the Senate and keep their control of the House.

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  6. Heh.

    I get monthly meetings from the DNC telling me my membership in the party lapsed in 2003, and why don't I pay my dues?

    I'll send them this post the next time.

    Cheers.

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  7. I rarely answer my home phone anymore. But when I used to, if I got one of those calls, I'd vote for the other candidate.

    I tried using the same logic with negative ads, but that often eliminates everyone.

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  8. I'm glad ours was First in the South! Glad it's over, and what ever happened to the Do not Call Bill for solicitations? I'm getting carpet cleaning and all the other nuisance calls again too?

    I know it doesn't cover political but the trickery is getting unreal--they are using peoples names and putting out a number--and it's still a recording!!!

    True deceit on that if you ask me!

    J

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  9. Phone calls from campaigns and political action committees can get tiring for sure. But for you at least it's over for now.

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  10. The problem is that, when there is no limit on what the government can do, there is too much at stake. I believe there is an old Middle Eastern saying that if political power is for sale, sell you mother to buy political power: you can always buy her back. The only way out is to limit what is at stake, to limit what political power can do.

    Where the wealthy may be looted by the state, it is only rational for them to spend as much money as it takes to control the state.

    What we see here is Leviathan unchained, which turns democracy into a war of all against all, and is unlikely to end well.

    No one studies political philosophy anymore. Political science is not at all the same thing. These are matters I thought we had figured out a long time ago, and provided for in our Constitution, but apparently not.

    The Gods of the Copybook Headings come back to bite us.

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  11. The problem is that, when there is no limit on what the government can do, there is too much at stake. I believe there is an old Middle Eastern saying that if political power is for sale, sell you mother to buy political power: you can always buy her back. The only way out is to limit what is at stake, to limit what political power can do.

    Where the wealthy may be looted by the state, it is only rational for them to spend as much money as it takes to control the state.

    What we see here is Leviathan unchained, which turns democracy into a war of all against all, and is unlikely to end well.

    No one studies political philosophy anymore. Political science is not at all the same thing. These are matters I thought we had figured out a long time ago, and provided for in our Constitution, but apparently not.

    The Gods of the Copybook Headings come back to bite us.

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  12. What do you know?

    More than they think. The political system in the U.S. has become a joke with the humorless influencing the hysterical to distrust the work-weary.

    It's exhausting and lacks civility.

    I've actually stopped talking politics altogether. It was bad for my digestion. :-)

    Pearl

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  13. You know a lot, and I completely agree with you. If only we could find a much better process. I too have left the tv off, used the mute, even used it on that horrible screaming JC Penny ad they had going on in the beginning of Feb. I find it strange that one must vote for a person because they were born in that state too. Although I do have a photo of my dad shaking hands with Gov. Romney years ago.... When it comes to discussions of politics and even religion and especially insurance...I will excuse myself and move on to the outdoors.....

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  14. It is definitely overwhelming, Sage.

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