politics { Election Primaries early...
...or FUCK YOU Iowa and New Hampshire. Sorry, but I had to say it.
Seriously. All this talk and action of moving up the election primaries in order for states to be relevant is bullshit. Here's an idea, why not set the primaries to be a consistent date, say mid-March or April, for every state? I know the ability to set primary dates are part of the state and local prerogative, but in an upcoming election year, where obscene amounts of money are going to be spent, and talk of moving primaries into 2007 (Iowa I'm looking at you) is running rampant it feels absurdest.
Perhaps I'm bitter because in honesty the upcoming 2008 election feels like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic after it has hit the iceberg. Neither side is giving me candidates I can get excited about. They're all monied. They feel cookie-cutter. It also feels a bit like 2000 and 2004 again because a good number of the candidates have run before. Congress feels corrupt at worst and ineffectual at best. The people we've elected to help enact change have looked more to re-election possibilities than to what is actually good for the people (Walz/Klobuchar I'm not going to forget your vote on FISA and it WILL hurt you in 2008 Walz and 2012 Klobuchar). Also the candidates and political parties, lobbies, ass grabbers, palm greasers, backroom dealers, grass roots, and every and anyone involved in the process will spend more this election than EVER before in history (and don't give me that adjusted dollars bullshit). Couple this with the spending of $10B/month on a war in a place we should never have gone to in the first place, and you have what I think amounts to moral corruption. Where else could that money be better spent? Idiot-savants, minus the savant part (FOX) have spun lies into reality, jingoism into patriotism and the average god damned American can't see it. All they want is to stroke their SUV and watch 'information' be spoon fed to them on their HD-TV or watch the latest 'reality' TV show.
Even the Franken/Coleman showdown, while guaranteed to be entertaining doesn't excite me. I'll vote for almost whatever DFL candidate gets to the general election mostly because Coleman is bad for me, was bad for St Paul and is bad for Minnesota and the country. I hold little hope anymore that the 2008 election will be nothing more than an exercise in excess and futility. We're an Imperial State. Chancellor Palpatine...I mean President BushCheney has streamlined the country into the First Galactic Empire...I mean consolidated emergency powers of law enforcement to 'secure' our country (torture, FISA, blah, blah, blah, all the shit that makes it so we can now no longer claim anyone else has committed human rights violations). How is this shit gonna be fixed if even Congress can't tell how bad its been broke? Where vocal nutjob minorities and corporate lobbies wield more power than the common voter. The general election is an illusion of choice.
There is no motherfucking spoon bitches.
3 comments:
I envy you. We can't get so excited about politics like you guys over there can. Lots of stuff happenings!
I get excited about politics, and most people I know do, but for some reason most people view it as a popularity contest. Perhaps its how we are conditioned from our experiences in High School. The primaries/caucus starting earlier, really touches a nerve with me because I think it illustrates the absurdity that our political process is taking. Iowa and New Hampshire have been early for a while, and sadly they wield way too much power over who the rest of us get to decide, as because the election races have become money games, most candidates who fail in those states opt to give up and sometimes give their money to the other candidates.
The money game bothers a lot as well. It feels more like, and especially with the Presidency, the often is bought and paid for by whomever has the largest 'war chest'.
There's a lot wrong, which is why I think I'm so passionate about it. That and this will be the fourth Presidential election in which I am eligible to vote, I skipped 1996 and didn't start voting until 1998, and I have to say, I've not been happy with any of the candidates since Nader in 2000. Couple this with a few choose the lesser of two evil mid-term elections, and as what happened in 2006, where we elected people who promised change, but voted against civil liberties (Walz/Klobuchar) and it all adds up to a pretty big negative. At least for myself.
powerful
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