If it wasn’t clear just how nausea inducing the campaign season has been, I would direct you to the now oft-seen video of Rand Paul supporters shoveling, jostling and stepping on the head of a woman who disagreed with them.
It’s funny that with the advent of the news networks, various news channels on cable, online magazine, all those avenues for information, the voter attention span has shrunk. The authors of many a misspelled placard at Tea Party events would have you believe that the world went into the dumper only when President Obama took office. This is, of course, crap as we have been failing for some time before that. “Taking my country back” has been getting heard with regularity this year. Nobody seems to answer with to what, the 1940s?
Now, the partiers concern me. Locally, the republican and democratic party bosses pick their guys prior to the primaries and then kvetch about low voter turnout. Who wants to turn out when the result is foretold. If I am a Buffalo area republican, I’m upset that the GOP doesn’t try, neither in the city or the state for that matter. If I’m a Buffalo area democrat, I’m upset that the party doesn’t try harder.
Being upset with the process is a fine thing, engaging in informed discourse is a great thing too, except that isn’t happening. The short attention span induced by funneled soundbites has produced a curious lot. I really don’t give a rat’s ass if you are an outsider or an insider, just that if you are going to do something once you are elected and if so, what?
I wonder how many tea party boosters know how many Amendments are in danger. I used to believe that Vice President Cheney was inspiring fear for saying things like “you need to vote for us to ensure safety,” but he is positively huggable compared to the double standards being put out by this crop. Check this out. Yeah, it’s Olbermann, but everything is accurately sourced:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39875964/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/#slice-2
I’m fond of minority opinions, owning quite a few myself. But I guess I’m saying to be careful what you wish for. A colleague of mine espoused the need to shake things up when selecting a candidate. I need a little more, some gravitas, some assurance of some progress. My central problem with the Tea Party folks, especially the GOP splinter portion is that they are resentful that they aren’t in power and that has the GOP in Congress especially swinging to the hard right. Ultimately, I believe stuff gets done when everybody is even stubbornly collaborating. The voices of the better angels can shout the extremes of the devils as it were.
But when candidates are more concerned with the proclivities of the opposition instead of the considerable problems that lie ahead, I got an issue (okay, I have volumes). If I’m Andrew Cuomo and annointed by my party, I roll out the plan to make New York better. If I’m Carl Paladino, I shine the biggest flash light I can find on Cuomo’s record as HUD secretary.
But that is asking too much apparently. I’ll stop here as I have to return to my mailbox to throw out the waste glossy paper coming from various candidates in the district.
I keep getting the postings on Facebook to pledge to vote (which is right up there with dedicating my status in terms of pointless activism) and I will. Always have and always will, just once again I know that the result will be something along the lines of “we lose.”
Mike's Pub 