Obviously it's been a long time since I've last posted, and as I started to prepare to write this entry, I was wondering about all of the things that have happened over the last month in both politics and sports - countless primaries, the Roger Clemens hearing, more NFL Spygate stories, John McCain clinching the Republican nomination - and then it occurred to me that in the grand scheme of things, we're largely in the same place we were a month ago!
This isn't to discount the importance of what has happened over the last month; especially concerning the upcoming election, but let's look at things in a broad sense - Obama and Hillary are still virtually tied and the momentum is swinging back and forth like a pendulum, we STILL don't have proof over whether Clemens did steroids (but we saw how partisanship can even be an issue when sports and Congress collide) or whether the Patriots are worthy of their Super Bowl titles, and McCain was the front runner after Super Tuesday anyway. A huge amount of pomp and circumstance (and money spent) just to tread water, wouldn't you say?
I think, in fact, that this stagnation might be part of the problem with our political election process. With campaigns starting earlier and earlier each cycle, it feels like there is a lot of dead time with nothing going on but the candidates spitting on each other. It's obviously beneficial to have more time to learn about each candidate, but really, how much name calling do we need? How many times can I hear Hillary question Obama's experience, and listen to Obama call for change? I GET IT - now let's get on with the show. Now, we have SIX WEEKS before another meaningful primary - I know Pennsylvania wasn't supposed to have an impact, but you think maybe someone should have planned for a close race. Now we are all going to be subject to the same droning on about the issues we've already beaten to death, and frankly, who wouldn't be sick of the whole thing by the time we hit the convention?
On the other hand, while I might be less disgusted with John McCain by the time the general election starts, I do think that his clinching the nomination while the other two continue to fight will actually hurt him, if only because he will be out of the public eye. I think he could ask Rudy about how important public awareness and momentum are in these types of things. So maybe this whole thing is a vicious cycle - the more intrusive your campaign, the more people get aggravated with you, but the less intrusive, the more people forget about you. Which is the lesser of two evils?
I'm about to dive into "Why Americans Hate Politics" by EJ Dionne; a subject I've always been interested in myself. I think the items mentioned above might have something to do with it, but I'll keep you posted on anything interesting from the book. However, the idea that we've spent a month dealing with all of this to no real end certainly makes me aggravated.
Or maybe I'm just trying to run away from my guilt of not posting in a month by blaming the political system. You can be the judge.
No comments:
Post a Comment