Not only do we think Our Guy can do no wrong, but when Their Guy is in the big chair, we blame everything bad on him. The elected executive of our republic has metamorphosed into some Frazer-esque sacral king, on whose luck rides the success or failure of the harvest and the path and frequency of Gulf coast hurricanes.
Six years into this Administration and I’m frankly tired of politics, and not all that makes me feel disillusioned is to be found on the left. I had hoped that the Internet age would turn out to be a more enlightened than the age of mass media which precedes it. But then social media came along, and I suddenly realized that the Internet could be worse; much worse.
I’m still an optimist, though. My theory is that with the baby boomers retiring, and suddenly finding themselves with a lot of time on their hands, they’ve decided to resettle old scores, and turn the whole country into Del Boca Vista, writ large.
Things will settle down once Xers move toward retirement to take over from the boomers. We’ll be too busy helicopter grandparenting to generate this much drama.
I’m more pessimistic than that. I am completely convinced we’re screwed no matter which party is in the leadership. They’ve set themselves up to be in power no matter what the little people say and the token ones that get elected to ‘clean up the system’ get pounded down until they’re replaced by someone more malleable and all the while we’ll be fed a diet of McDonalds & American Idol (bread & circuses) to keep distracted.
The quandary: anyone wanting to reduce governmental power is not interested in acquiring enough power to do so.
One does not amass wealth to buy something just for the sake of severely diminishing its value.
One does not amass political power just for the sake of reducing the power of politics.
Anyone who would be a good Senator or President is incapable of being elected. And anyone with the drive and ability to get elected is woefully inadequate to the position.
The corruption and cronyism are built-in to the system; it’s impossible for an honest person to go very far in politics.
I would reduce the size and power of government, and I’m even willing to assume the massive government power required, if only for long enough to do so. That puts my electoral prospects right about “snowflake in Hell” chances.
(Then again, given where I’m posting this comment, perhaps there is hope after all. ;) )
I’ve long been of the opinion that our politicians ought to be drafted (some nations have compulsory military service; perhaps we should have compulsory civil service?) with the competent-yet-unwilling being steered to the higher offices amid promises of “Look, just serve your four years, then you’re out and you can get back to doing whatever you want to do,” and the ambitious quietly pushed into scut jobs and out the door asap.
That’s what’s supposed to happen in Civil Service. And, yet, we have Iron Law of Bureaucracies
That’s pretty close to sortition, and probably isn’t a half bad idea.
I’m short-term pessimistic, long-term optimistic. There’s a once-in-a-generation politics realignment coming as the Baby Boomers start to age out of the political system. It’s going to be messy, and I’m not willing to predict where the rubble’s going to land. But it’s shaping up to have personal freedom and privacy be a major part of the game; because of the wreckage of that the boomers left us.
I’m actually quiet optimistic the Internet has been helping more than it has been hurting. Sure Obama got elected, but he had the entire mainstream media on his side as well as the youth vote. I think now they’ve seen him fail and realize all the lies they were told, they might not believe the next guy as much. Everybody is much more cynical now, which is awesome.
Nah, the left still has it’s hooks in the 40 somethings to a vast majority of everybody under 40 something….
Yeah, nobody over 40 would fall for that leftist twaddle, which is why Roosevelt and Kennedy and Johnson got stomped at the polls so badly and the AARP is an iron bastion of conservatism…
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL! :D
The first President I remember was Bill Clinton, in about 1997. My parents were Democrats, so I liked him, and I noticed that for the other half of the country he was the worst President EVER.
Then as I got older and more politically conscious, George W. Bush was elected, and for eight years my friends and I thought he was the worst President EVER.
Then Barack Obama. And he, too, is widely believed to be the worst President EVER, although I’ve never felt all that strongly about him either way.
Somehow, the current President is always the worst one to have ever presided. This state of affairs is unsettling to me.
I never voted for Clinton and am more aware for a longer time period. The worst president was Carter until Obama. Obama has passed Carter as the worst. Obama has not just destroyed the middle class and our economy but he is busy destroying our position in the world. The world has gotten a lot more dangerous. Carter started the terrorism era with deposing the Shah and it has continued since.Clinton
was a lieing slimeball but as President he was not bad.
I think the fall of the Shah was purely the fault of the CIA and British for putting him there in the first place. They failed to see it coming, though, which was also bad.
An attack on public officials is easy to do since they are out in public a lot. I do not like Obama. I knew what he was before he got elected but the low information voter voted him in twice. I have not heard in conservative circles any blaming of Obama for the attack Derangement is blaming Obama for the slasher attack on our ambassador. If social media is doing that It may be the circle of friends. Lies are so common on Facebook
Frankly I would go for term limits. I know it ain’t going to happen.
I’m optimistic that I’ll be killed in the Second American Revolution rather than grow old in a police state.
I have to wonder if people said that at the passage of the 18th Amendment or the signing of Executive Order 6102?
George W wasn’t elected by low information voters he was installed in his first term by right wingers on the supreme court and Ohio was stolen to give him his second. Shrub and darth started two unnecessary wars that killed thousands of our children and emptied our treasury and they turned us into a nation of torturers.
I envy you the pure and unsullied fantasy universe in which you dwell.
solution is to destroy medicare and SS, that way spoiled boomers die a cold lonely death