Friday, April 06, 2007

Not a bad idea

The Anchoress has taken her stand, she is not participating in the never ending campaign.

I know people who do not even watch the news anymore because they just can not stand the whole process. It is depressing and demeaning and completely frustrating to people who do not live and eat and breathe politics, that is normal people. So maybe the Anchoress is right, maybe we should wait unil an election is near before we have a political campaign. Fancy that. Just like the good ol' days.

I resent like hell that these politicians - all of them, but I seem to recall it was Hillary who started early, forcing everyone else to do so, as well - began their stumping and fund-raising two years before an election. Some of them - like Clinton - barely finished their re-election celebrations before reaching out their hands for ‘08 campaign funds.

They’ve decided to be in our faces for an excessive period of time, and the acquiescent media is allowing it by covering their every belch and hiccup, but that doesn’t mean I have to read it and get sucked into a pre-election vortex that has no business forming just now. Our “public servants,” duly elected to represent their states, are running back and forth across the country giving speeches, eating festival food and raising money, money, money instead of attending to the concerns of their constituents, voting on pending legislation, FUNDING OUR TROOPS and otherwise doing what they were hired to do.

I’m not participating in this, yet. I’m not going to allow myself to be suckered into paying attention to these people - and giving them either my money or my time - before I deem it practical and intelligent to do so, and that will be sometime around November of ‘07.

Yes. I am giving myself (gasp!) a whole year off from being caught up in the fakery and frummery of modern electoral politics. The press can make all the noise it wants and declare “winners” and “losers” over and over again, week by interminable week, for the next 18+ months, but that doesn’t mean I have to listen. If we allow the pols and the press to maintain the “endless campaign” mentality, we’re all going to be utterly burned out (and
tuning out) at the time when we most should be keyed in and observant.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the disenchantment may reach across the spectrum. It may change things in ways we can't quite foresee. Maybe even for the better.

buddy larsen said...

True, but meanwhile, fat chance any of US are gonna tune out, even for awhile. We got the Jones. The monkey on our backs. Only antidote is to go fishin, but jeez, something bad might happen!

Anonymous said...

Hey, halibut fishing opens NOW. So who cares if something bad happens. Just jump on a plane, bring some warm clothes, and we can bob around in the frozen northern seas and the inky Stygian blackness and hope that the 150 lb fish on the end of the line doesn't drag us overboard. Now, doesn't that sound like fun?

I'll pick you up at the airport. :-)

buddy larsen said...

Oh, jeez, that sounds like FUN! But I was planning on having a root canal, darn.

Anonymous said...

Ya can't weasel out of it that easy. I have a dentist friend who might go too and he can give you a root canal RIGHT ON THE BOAT.

Anonymous said...

Buddy, I'm sure Terrye will tell us if somehow we wander off-topic.

buddy larsen said...

Have him bring a couple canisters of Laughing Gas, and we'll get her back in a good mood!

Barry Dauphin said...

I think that this early campaign is part of a two-fer. IMHO many people yearn for the conflict and difficulty (within our country) of the Iraq war and the WoT to simply be over with. The early campaign involves thinking ahead to the next president and the fantasy that we will then put this all behind us.

Second, this seems very much a media creation in a desparate effort to "create content". The MSM "understands" how to cover campaigns, and newspaper subscriptions have been falling and there are fewer eyeballs for evening news on TV. Those who run for president usually have to start early and work hard. So, the fact that these folks are doing that really isn't too unusual. The media coverage is strange though.

I think that many of the "average" voters aren't paying much attention at this point or they will get very bored with this. By summer we will not see as much of this or at least few will be paying attention. Also it is important to factor in (again IMHO) that the MSM loathe Bush and are eager to think about hsi replacement. The subtext of the early campaign coverage is, "wow, Bush really sucks." How can they pass up an opportunity to say that?

buddy larsen said...

Things haven't been the same since Clinton's development of "the permanent campaign". The snarling faces of Carville & Begala will live in infamy.

Anonymous said...

barry:

many people yearn for the conflict and difficulty (within our country) of the Iraq war and the WoT to simply be over with.

Very true. A friend of my wife, very liberal, said precisely that the other day. "I can't wait for this War on Terror to be over" - meaning she can't wait for the end of the Bush Administration and presumably a return to Clintonian kick the can down the road foreign policies. Victor Davis Hanson wrote something prescient a few years back when he said that the WoT would destroy presidents. I think the Democrats are quite conscious of this and simply can't face the possibility, since their heart is elsewhere. Thus the Islamist threat has to be reduced to a "nuisance" in JF Kerry's phrase. The fact that the nation can't come up with a bipartisan strategy akin to what we enjoyed in the early Cold War makes it that much more likely that VDH's prediction will come true.

Barry Dauphin said...

Skook

And JFK-lite believes this is only a nuisance. The Dems actually believe that W has done the dirty work, and we'll be OK. Their downplaying the WoT is implicit acknowledgement of W's success. What they don't believe is that this is really a long process.

In the age of speed up, we Americans are not built to hang tough with this kind of cause. In Iraq we are the bull in the China shop that has a conscience. We could knock the insurgents senseless but at the price of killing many innocents. We are supposed to have the power of Zeus, namely to be able to smite the bad guys without harming anyone else and to omniscently be able to tell the difference.

Anonymous said...

barry:

Their downplaying the WoT is implicit acknowledgement of W's success.

I have sometimes thought that too. Maybe.

What they don't believe is that this is really a long process.

True. At least the elites don't, because believing so is much too threatening. It also explains the considered disinterest expressed by the MSM in all the other places around the world where Islam is on the march - Nigeria and Thailand and the Philippines, among so many other places. All the little bus bombings and church burnings once a week or so. You have to go to the blogs for that. Now, aside from the elites, I think ordinary people do see this as a long term struggle, even though they may disagree on what to do about it.

We are supposed to have the power of Zeus, namely to be able to smite the bad guys without harming anyone else and to omnisciently be able to tell the difference.

That is because none of the commentators have been in the military or had to deal with uncertainty and risk in physically threatening situations. I remember during the war when a young woman in a convoy was captured. Greta Van Susteren was interviewing somebody. It was explained to her that the convoy had become lost. And she couldn't believe how that could happen, with the satellites and all the technology. Here you are, 20 years old, halfway around the world, driving down unpaved roads at night in an undeveloped country. But you can't get lost. Nope, can't happen. We suffer because the disconnect between what the troops experience and the experiences of our elites is so great.

loner said...

Just as long as she doesn't stop writing about the important things—Harry Potter and American Idol.

I'm in Seattle today for Sakura-Con.

Darling I guess, my mind is more at ease
but nevertheless, why stir up memories
Been invited on a date,
I might have gone, but what for
I just couldn't bear it without you,
I don't get around much anymore

Unknown said...

One thing about it, the Islamists have their own campaign to wage and I am not sure they much care if the liberals are on board or not.

In other words, somethings you can not wish away. My fear is that if someone all warm and gooey wins the election...some crazy man half way around the world will want to know what he {or she} is made of. The way to find that out would be an attack, like maybe the one in OKC if not NYC.