Politics as football and fecal matter

Politics as football

Ahhhh... it's Monday morning, and everyone is second-guessing yesterday's game. Well... it's actually Friday, and the second-guessing is about the election, but the political talking heads sound very much like the sports commentators.

This morning, every winner is claiming that their victory "means" that the public (even those who voted against them) is 100% behind everything the winner stood for, and against everything the loser stood for. Remarkably, this is true even in races that were very close, with the voters quite divided in their opinions.

The unvarnished truth is that nobody has much idea why anyone voted the way they did, because elections almost never offer clear choices. Why would Minnesota voters choose to keep a Republican governor, but turn out the Republican Secretary of State, Auditor, and Attorney General, and switch the majority in both halls of the legislature to the Democrats? I dare say that there is not a single voter whose ballot was validated... not one voter whose choices were all winners. Mine certainly weren't... I voted NOTA (None of the Above) to most races.

So, none of us will be very satisified with the results, unless we're just willing to write off some choices in exchange for others. Those who consider themselves party loyalists can feel good if their party did well, but even those whose party did poorly in total will grope for "meaning" that pleases them. Here in Minnesota, the Independence party was well-treated by the media, included in debates, and races were clearly considered 3-way contests. Yet, none of the Independence party candidates won. The IP candidate for Governor gathered 6.43% of the votes cast.

Democrats, in analyzing their gubernatorial loss (by exactly 1%, 46.71% to 45.71%) in the face of a fairly widespread Democratic sweep, will now blame the Independence party for taking votes away from their candidate. Again, nobody knows whether that is true or not, but alternative parties are often blamed for loser's losses. It's possible that the IP will itself claim to have been the difference in races... which will boost their own egos, but neither knows whether their claims are actually true. The IP can feel satisified to have maintained "major-party" status in Minnesota because a statewide candidate achieved over 5%.

Losers everywhere will claim to have "changed the discussion" with their campaigns. Of course, winners will make the same claim and be a bit more justified in so doing.

Politics as fecal matter

Politics is, crudely put, shit. We may be tagged as Blues and Reds, but politics is absolutely as brown as fecal matter. We all eat splendid-looking, colorful foods, in carefully planned, named, described, and presented dishes, but the remaining results we try to ignore as we flush are always about the same color, and don't smell anything like what we started with. Doesn't that describe our political system perfectly? Every couple of years, we're bombarded by splendid presentations on TV, radio, print, e-mail, and in person, each doing their best to get our votes, but, regardless of all that, and regardless of what we think or do, the results always come out the same... brown and smelly as hell.

I've followed and participated in politics for close to 50 years, and about the only thing I can say about the results of all the billions of dollars wasted on such nonsense is that the results remain brown and have gotten steadily more rotten-smelling. Presentation of the menu dishes has gotten more spectacular, and analytical food reviews surround us to a smothering degree, but the remaining results are putrid.

The solution? Oh, that's a major problem. Politics, like eating for pleasure rather than sustenance, has infected our society. It has become an avocation or vocation for so many of us, that it seems essential. It is like the effort and expense people put into lowering their taxes, even to the point of taking deliberate losses or wasting money. Politics and government is a giant game we play, in which each of us is a loser. We huff and puff about, trying to minimize our losses in a thousand different ways, and congratulating ourselves when others lose more than we do. We compete, even hate, those who might lose less than we do. Politics is naturally divisive, because government takes from all and gives to some, turning each of us into a competitor with all of our neighbors... even those who are far away. We scrap to be among those who receive, and fight to reduce our losses, but the simple truth is that we are all losers, because government doesn't create anything, it only destroys and/or redistributes. It takes and bestows favors. It increasingly concentrates power and demands obedience and even worship. We distrust those in office, regardless of who is there... to an extent greater than almost any other group of people. Voting results switch back and forth in mysterious fashion, but results remain increasingly bad following each "big change".

Very few of us steal from each other, or cause deliberate damage to others in order to gain for ourselves, but government forces us to do precisely that, every day, to people we don't know, and to a great extent every year. We're forced into being competing thieves, who still smile when we meet, because we pretend to not know what we're doing to each other. With our personal hand, we help others, while our "government hand" steals from them. We talk enthusiastically about favoring "programs" that help others, while we blindly ignore the answer to the question ... "At whose expense?"

It is beyond question that the "policies" our government has embraced for many decades have severely polarized us, and widened the gap between "haves" and "have-nots"... exactly the OPPOSITE of what the pushers of such policies have touted when selling those programs to us. They claim to "bring us together" while tearing us apart. Government programs are destructive... without exception... sounding great, helping a few, but harming many and usually harming those who can least afford it.

We're at war with much of the world... hated by many more... with more citizens in prison, than any other nation. Are we proud of ourselves? Most of us are, sort of, because we're getting by financially, and own more stuff than the rest of the world. We've become well-fed slaves to our government, and we don't seem to mind it too much.

Once again, our election choices did not include making government smaller or less intrusive. If anything, the Democratic sweep in 2006 will make the problem worse, but we had to "blame" somebody, didn't we? When will America wake up and realize that government is the problem, not the solution, and that no amount of rehashing of politics will change that? Every year, my fear increases that we will not comprehend that simple fact until our nation collapses around our feet.

Which knee is jerking most?

Tomorrow, Americans will go to the polls with a more confused attitude than at any other time in decades. Dissatisfied, disillusioned, angry, and frustrated, the question in most voters' minds will be "Does anyone deserve my vote?"

Voters will not be able, in most cases, to choose candidates who represent "a better path", for they can't SEE a better path. Given that BOTH major parties and their candidates have demonstrated nothing to admire, choosing the "lesser of two evils" has become clear reality... two evils indeed. But which is lesser? The easy answer is to hold the President's party responsible for the disastrous state of affairs and, via the ballot, to cleanse us of them. Clearly, Republicans deserve that result, but many thinking voters must realize that in order to rid ourselves of Republicans, they are left will the fatal alternative of Democrats sweeping into office, and that alternative has become almost equally ugly.

Most Americans have, time after time, gullibly accepted the fatal alternative forced upon America by the two major political parties. In the process, those voters have rejected other alternatives, such as Libertarian party candidates, on grounds that have nothing to do with choosing a better path for our nation. Many of those voters, even while knowing that voting Libertarian is choosing a better path, have nevertheless not given them their votes either because they "couldn't win" or because they were so incensed at one major party that they could do nothing other than try to keep them from winning... hence casting their vote for candidates and a party they shared no ideals with.

We are reaping now the harvest of misguided voter thinking. To be more honest and blunt, we are all suffering from voters who didn't think much at all, but simply accepted whichever knee jerked the most. Such voters have often declared themselves INDEPENDENTS, a declaration that neither major party deserved their support.

Declaring oneself as an independent is often no more than an evasion of responsibility. Such voters declare that they choose the best candidates, not a party, but that evades the clear knowledge that the two parties RUN our government, have knowingly approved those candidates, and control those who are elected.

By choosing from endorsed candidates of either old party, regardless of your good intentions, and no matter what your incentive, you add to the continuing condemnation of America to suffer under the corruption of power politics. Acceptance of candidates of either of the two dominant parties only strengthens their combined stranglehold on the choices we have. Thanks to choosing the lesser of two evils, we have placed ourselves between the proverbial rock and hard place, with NO choice being reasonable.

Other parties, no matter how durable, or persistent, or determined, can survive forever under such conditions. The voters MUST give themselves the opportunity of more and better choices by TAKING those choices when they're made available, rather than writing them off as impractical non-winners. Choosing a better alternative, even if that alternative doesn't win, increases the chance that, NEXT TIME, the alternative will be there again and will be more successful.

We MUST learn to vote for what we WANT, not for what we're reluctantly willing to accept, because our choices determine what our future choices will be. By lazily not looking beyond the media coverage of only two choices, and by gullibly buying into the straw-man games played by the D's and R's, Americans are condemning themselves to being able to choose only between two equally corrupt, intellectually deceptive parties who are, step by deliberate step, turning what was once a beacon of freedom to the world into a hated, despotic empire.

Recognize that, several days before a national election, the biggest political discussion is primarily about a muffed joke by Kerry, and you'll see that American major-party politics no longer has ANYTHING to do with issues or ideals... it has become a pathetic game of playing to our last-minute knee jerks.

Do you WANT alternatives? Do you want to break the stranglehold of two corrupt parties on our electoral system? We are the only large "democratic" nation with only two major parties, and it is driving us in a direction very few of us can stomach. Throwing out one set of ruffians for another virtually identical set is NOT a solution. We've been doing that for a very long time, and the results continue to worsen. There is only one way to break that stranglehold, and, like all revolutions, it requires some effort. Seek out and think about alternative parties. When you find one that believes nearer to what you believe, put your support behind it, regardless of that party's chance of winning. With enough help, the chances will improve, and even before winning elections, your chosen party will have a political effect.

We know that about 15% of American voters hold essentially libertarian positions. Imagine the effect 15% of the vote would have on our political arena. Imagine the wake-up call to D's and R's... the fear that the 15% would grow... the elections that 15% would decide. Would politicians think twice about proposing corrupt legislation? Would it change legislative votes? You know damned well it would, even if NO libertarians had been elected.

If George W. Bush had known that the 15% of American voters would not continue to fall for the lesser of two evils trick... that they would have instead have rallied behind the Libertarian Party in clear opposition, do you think he would have invaded Iraq? I really doubt it, because nothing... absolutely nothing... means more to the Democratic and Republican parties than enough votes to continue their lucrative, corrupting power mongering.

America... a nation that once had dozens of competing political parties... has meekly allowed two parties to strangle our political process and turn a once-great nation into a hated, aggressive monster. If you want that to stop, then GET OFF YOUR REAR and do something about it. If this really is a nation OF, BY, and FOR the people, then take some action to get it back under our control. Stop excusing the crooks you voted for last time... stop falling for knee-jerk slogans that mean nothing, like "support our troops", "stay the course", and "cut and run", and stop accepting the fatal alternative of D or R. If you can't find someone else to vote for, then write in NOTA (none of the above) and exercise your voice that way. Write it boldly, like John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence, to insure that the King didn't miss the message.

I close with a classic reminder from Benjamin Franklin:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.