Poor Tim Pawlenty: I'm sure his mommy thinks he would make a great president, but it's not gonna happen. Ditto Michele Bachmann, that pizza guy Cain, odd duck Ron Paul, over-the-hill Newt and the rest of the sorry Republicans throwing their ill-fitting hats into the ring. Now I don't really like Barack Obama, but I'm not sure why we would ever dump him after one term for any of these sorry folks.In fact--groan--here comes the ridiculous campaign process these poli-sci majors undergo every four years, assembling teams to spread their seeds door-to-door, renting expensive offices in every city, printing fliers and posters, mailing out heartfelt letters begging for a handout--and it makes me sick. Just last week Mitt Romney raised 10 million dollars in one day! Good job, Mitt, why not send that money to Obama right now and tell him to use it for the public good? (That might even win Mitt some votes.)
If all those presidential hopefuls would just keep their day jobs and give Obama a crack at another four years to try and do one good thing for the country that might stick, things would be better for everyone--except of course the execs at CNN and FOX and MSNBC, and Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow, and the rest of those blood-sucking journalists who live off the proceeds of the constantly spinning election cycle. For them, every year is an election year, and nobody wins but them.
awww it is all a great spectator sport!
ReplyDeleteShould we cancel baseball because the Yankees always win?
First of all, the Yankees do not always win, much to my dismay. Secondly, that is quite an expensive spectator sport considering the dire straits we find ourselves in today, with the national debt, unemployment, an all-but-bankrupt health care system, blah, blah--can we really AFFORD to make sport out of government?
ReplyDeleteWhy not prohibit campaign spending and give them equal time on public radio and public tv! NO private donations allowed! All that money should be donated to the national debt....or other areas of need. If they can manage a campaign without spending money maybe they can manage the country's budget.
ReplyDeleteNow you're talking, Deneb! Great idea....if only....
ReplyDeleteUpon this is founded that saying, That the reigns of good princes have been always most dangerous to the liberties of their people: for when their successors, managing the government with different thoughts, would draw the actions of those good rulers into precedent, and make them the standard of their prerogative, as if what had been done only for the good of the people was a right in them to do, for the harm of the people, if they so pleased; it has often occasioned contest, and sometimes public disorders, before the people could recover their original right, and get that to be declared not to be prerogative, which truly was never so; since it is impossible that any body in the society should ever have a right to do the people harm; though it be very possible, and reasonable, that the people should not go about to set any bounds to the prerogative of those kings, or rulers, who themselves transgressed not the bounds of the public good: for prerogative is nothing but the power of doing public good without a rule.
ReplyDelete- John Locke
Thanks for the thoughtful comment Keith; now, can you translate into plainer English so I can get your point?
ReplyDeleteThe people will give a good ruler leeway with the rules because they trust the ruler to use that leeway in the peoples interest. Once given, however, that leeway gets handed down with the office and will be exploited by leaders who will use it to harm the people.
ReplyDeleteTrust is intended for an individual but can only be given to an office.
That is why it is a good idea to have a big hoopla of an election even if it turned out to be a foregone conclusion. If we offer a President we trust a pass, the next president will assume that pass even if we don't want him or her to.
It is the same basic argument that saves the Senate filibuster. It is a terrible and badly abused tool when you are in the majority, but if you vote to get rid of it, you won't have it next time it is you in the minority.