I recall feeling this same way about leadership I’d supported all the way back in 1979 and 1980. Jimmy Carter’s presidency, so hopeful at the outset because we were communally digging out from the morass that was Nixon/Ford, had become a mess. Unable to move forward in any substantial fashion in key areas of the economy, the energy crisis, and the hostage crisis in Iran, things just felt sad. These days, Obama’s presidency is marked with similar problems that feel insurmountable: the economy, spying scandals, the rollout of the...
Tea Party Be Gone!
So after the election and the resulting apparent near collapse and all of the soul-searching that has gone on within the Republican party, one can find it easy to have forgotten about Karl Rove, the wunderkind who engineered the Bush(2) victories. After all, he was among those identified with the future of the party, and certainly, during those eight years, the future for the party looked quite good. But then the Republicans ran John McCain–a likable enough guy on the surface, but with absolutely no passion or energy–against the...
Well Here’s Your Problem…
One fascinating part of watching the election this past year was the absolute bewilderment shown by the Republicans in failing to win as much as they expected…Or failing to win at all. They were clearly flabbergasted by the results and didn’t know what went wrong. The confusion began with the confidence of Romney’s pollsters and internal people who were sure they had margins to win in the key states, then rippled outward as some of the big races in other states fell the wrong way: Elizabeth Warren, Claire...
Afterward
On the morning after, people wake up feeling either elated or depressed, or for some, even sick. It’s not a new phenomena after elections, especially big ones, to have some sort of visceral reaction to the results, but what’s surprising to me is that people don’t see the long-term big picture: there have been those who have had the same reactions to elections for years, and the country continues to function and continues to move forward without dissolving into chaos. Every presidential election I can remember has been...
Running
Ah, election night. It’s always been a big deal, but back in my youth, it was a lot of fun and quite an experience. You see, ages ago, in 1976, actually, my mom, in her deep wisdom, signed me up to help her work at the election headquarters for Minneapolis. Back then, voters used the old style booths to vote in. They had the flip switches next to a printed name card of the candidates. You’d flip the switch for your choice, and the vote would be...
Foot-In-Mouth
I figure you all could probably check out the pictures to the right if you’re looking for your cat fix. In the meantime, I’ll talk about the incredible ability of politicians to improperly speak their mind. The incredible knack that all politicians have these days of saying stupid things got me to wondering: is this a new pandemic, or has it been a problem for a long time? Now, I’ll grant you that the politicians can’t go five minutes these days without having a microphone or camera...
Debating
So yeah, I watched the debate. Well, truth be told, I started watching, but 15 minutes in, I just turned on the radio and listened on NPR. And I think I ended up experiencing the same things talked about with the Nixon-Kennedy debate. For two men who initially looked pretty stiff and measured on TV, they came off on the radio as extremely well spoken, knowledgeable, intelligent, and honestly committed to the topics they talked about in this debate. Okay, and I listened to it partially...
Politics Are Stupid and Poopy – A Commentary
It’s primary night, and I’m not voting. This is for a whole variety of reasons, including there not being one meaningful race in my district where my vote will sway the outcome in any way. But one reason is as follows below: What follows here is a commentary on the whole of politics in this season and several in recent memory at all levels, all the way from president on down to dog catcher. I am tired of both ends of the political spectrum being afraid of...
Amending
There’s a brouhaha going on over who has the right to name an amendment question on the election ballot in this state. The Secretary of State has named them, not surprisingly, in a different way than the legislative supporters of both measures wished. So as a result, they’re pissed, claiming that Mark Ritchie, the Secretary of State, has overstepped his bounds. Yet, in about 30 minutes of searching through Minnesota statutes, I found our answer: 204D.15 PINK BALLOT; FORM; DISTRIBUTION; SAMPLE BALLOT. Subdivision 1.Titles for constitutional amendments. The...
Unsubstantiated
One unfortunate side effect of the internet–or for that matter, any form of human communication–is that people can make statements or claims about another person and it’s pretty likely that someone somewhere will believe it. And you don’t need any proof to do this. You just need to be convincing, or have people who believe as you do listening. Enter Michele Bachmann, the wingnuttiest of wingnuts in the modern conservative movement–so conservative, in fact, that she appear to have lapped the field and is coming around for...