Thank goodness the 2008 election is finished. I have to say my own mind was basically made up many months ago. My candidate didn’t win, nor would my candidate have won had the McPalin ticket swept the polls. So you could say I’m a bit of an outlier. This position afforded me a little luxury to follow the battle without a strong emotional investment in either major party.
I’m still shaking my head.
I tried to sift through the epithets and flaming arrows to find cogent, rational arguments for aligning with Democrat or Republican, and I really couldn’t. I’m slow sometimes, but I really tried. All I found was that the parties had a common theme: “We’re not the other guys.”
But, in fact, both parties have been behaving badly for years, with Republicans seeming to have departed from core principles in a more dramatic way than the Democrats. The Dems actually appear to me to have come back towards center without a will to fight for radical, sweeping social agendas. At the same time, the Republicans have abandoned any notion of small government or fiscal responsibility, and they have thought nothing of trampling individual rights into the dust.
In a post-election interview with NPR’s Morning Edition, Dick Armey gave a succinct, clear post-mortem for his party, reinforcing my own conclusion about moving far away from basic party ideals. Also, I thought one phrase he used was particularly apt for elected officials across the board. “Delinquency in office” has failed constituents and the country in a wholesale manner. The tripod of a federal government balanced between three branches has just about toppled over, yet neither party seems to have recognized the need to address this problem, either.
Thus, trying to follow presidential and local campaigns was a lot like tracking an argument between Ford and Chevy owners. Even normally rational folks lose their cool over cars. People seemed to be voting for a brand rather than any inherent differences in function or quality of the products.
Suddenly, this made some sense to me, especially given the general lack of critical thinking and the programmed-consumer nature of our society. I started reading up on related topics from marketing psychology to “magical thinking”, which proved immensely valuable in understanding what was going on. No wonder there was little substance to the arguments. The parties’ efforts and campaign dollars have been focused on very sophisticated consumer programming, not much more.
The up-side, of course, is that we’re much more homogenous in our thinking (or lack of it) than the executive producers of “Survivor - Washington, DC” would have us think. We really have come together as a nation.
Is this a great country, or what?
Sunday, 9 November 2008 at 18:26
aurora_guy,
The major parties seem to believe that The business of America is business. I blame Clinton and Bush equally for the massive deregulation that led to the current economic crisis. Ross Perot is looking kind of sensible now. I never thought I’d say that.
Sunday, 9 November 2008 at 18:43
Maybe I’ll support General Zod next time if Obama doesn’t work out. He’s PO’d about this year’s election.
Monday, 10 November 2008 at 15:37
Well, I was not going to vote for John McCain. On the Thursday night of Obama’s convention speech, I was cooking dinner and trying to decide whether to vote for Paris Hilton or Rick and Bubba (I know, PH is too young to be President so it might have been a wasted vote. But she’s really hot.)
But I really like Sarah Palin – she probably doesn’t seem extraordinary to you Alaskans (even considering the much-touted 80% approval rating), but for the red states down here she does seem like a different kind of politician – a real person. So I voted for her. I understand McCain, at least for a while, was part of the deal. The hyper-irrational and weird, atavistically sexist treatment she received from the Left (”Publish Trig’s DNA test!”, “Sarah Palin is a C*nt!”) only made her more sympathetic.
BTW you never posted about her name being cleared in that Monegan firing thing. Maybe you owe it to her – or to yourself – to clarify you never believed the garbage.
During the campaign I was never able to decide if BO is just not very smart or is just really deceptive, those being the major hypotheses I see that are consistent with the evidence. The jury’s still out, I suppose, and maybe I should consider that the two hypotheses are not inconsistent with each other.
Monday, 10 November 2008 at 18:47
lukemeister wrote: “I blame Clinton and Bush equally for the massive deregulation that led to the current economic crisis.”
Well, I can see blaming Clinton — he’s the one who made changes to the Community Reinvestment Act that provided for public underwriting of sub-prime mortgages.
But Bush actually tried to prevent this mess. In 2003 he proposed a new agency to oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The New York Times reported:
Who shot this re-regulation down? Democrats. In particular the one pocketing the largest campaign contributions from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The same article continues:
Monday, 10 November 2008 at 21:26
“BTW you never posted about her name being cleared in that Monegan firing thing. Maybe you owe it to her – or to yourself – to clarify you never believed the garbage.”
Well, by numbers, two different panels came to two different conclusions about Sarah, so I’d say it’s a draw. On the other hand, the damning one came from the legislature, and the other comes from the AK Personnel Board, who actually works for the governor, independent counsel or not.
Even the first report was wishy-washy about the whole deal over Monegan’s termination. The report found that his refusal to fire the ex-brother-in-law was “likely a contributing factor” in Monegan’s termination in July, but it also concluded that the governor’s decision was “a proper and lawful exercise of her constitutional and statutory authority” to hire and fire department heads. Knowing how things can be misconstrued to make a point, I’ll give her a cautious pass.
However, the report by the Personnel Board only contradicts the other panel’s conclusions by saying there was no evidence to prove Sarah or any state employee had acted improperly in Monegan’s dismissal. The way it was worded seemed weak, but whatever…nothing compelling to suggest a major transgression was forthcoming.
I’m anxious to see how she recovers from her road trip with John. Back here, folks are a little more skeptical of her. The image she portrayed on the presidential campaign trail was quite different that what they voted for during the race for governor. Of course, it’s all about managing one’s public persona. If she gains enough power not to be completely subjugated to the RNC image makers, she may have a chance to be a respected force in national politics.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008 at 02:34
I learn so much from this blog. I’d never heard of Rick and Bubba before.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008 at 16:51
I learned to love Rick and Bubba when they were radio hosts for the local Huntsville rock morning show. Shortly after I started working in Huntsville, though, they left for more money and a larger market.