Two of the pillars of our American democracy stand upon are the premise that ordinary folk -- in their role on juries and as voters -- are inherently imbued with a kind of celestial judgement claimed by only one other human on earth, the Pope. As the myth goes, once they hear all the evidence and arguments, juries and voters make the right judgement.
Well, I have at least two contempory examples why that's untrue: O.J. Simpson, and two George W. Bush terms in office. There are others -- lots of them -- but, nuf said. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong. Regardless the decisions stand and the consequences pile up, be they good or ill.
My apologies for just blurting out this revelation, as it will certainly come as news to most middle school civics classes. Sorry boys and girls, but ordinary Americans can be just as stupid when assembled into groups as they can be when left to their own devices-- often even more so. And sprinkling them with feel-good "justice-is-blind" and "the-people's-choice" fairy dust can't turn their occassional pig's-ear decisions into silk purses.
I only mention this because we are again in the midst of one of these exercises in mass decision making. Don't get me wrong, I prefer democracy over any other form of governance I've studied. My only point is that it's far from infallible -- which I admit, is the biggest "duh" you'll hear today.
Already this process is showing signs of trouble. Our herd of Democratic voters appears to have, again, grazed it's way into a patch of locoweed. Yes, I'm bellyaching about Hillary's alleged "come back," in the Texas and Ohio primaries. And about all the nonsense those victories unleashed. And because, against all odds, there's a growing possiblity it can result in sending another Republican to the White House in November. .
Here's why I think the Democratic Party's herd of voters may not be leading us to the White House, but a cliff -- again. Here are my five reasons for believing so:
1) A good place to begin is to examine just who may have engineered Hillary's "comeback" in Texas and Ohio. Ask yourself why you think America's preeminent right-winger would want to help Hillary and hurt Obama.
Well, I have at least two contempory examples why that's untrue: O.J. Simpson, and two George W. Bush terms in office. There are others -- lots of them -- but, nuf said. Sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong. Regardless the decisions stand and the consequences pile up, be they good or ill.
My apologies for just blurting out this revelation, as it will certainly come as news to most middle school civics classes. Sorry boys and girls, but ordinary Americans can be just as stupid when assembled into groups as they can be when left to their own devices-- often even more so. And sprinkling them with feel-good "justice-is-blind" and "the-people's-choice" fairy dust can't turn their occassional pig's-ear decisions into silk purses.
I only mention this because we are again in the midst of one of these exercises in mass decision making. Don't get me wrong, I prefer democracy over any other form of governance I've studied. My only point is that it's far from infallible -- which I admit, is the biggest "duh" you'll hear today.
Already this process is showing signs of trouble. Our herd of Democratic voters appears to have, again, grazed it's way into a patch of locoweed. Yes, I'm bellyaching about Hillary's alleged "come back," in the Texas and Ohio primaries. And about all the nonsense those victories unleashed. And because, against all odds, there's a growing possiblity it can result in sending another Republican to the White House in November. .
Here's why I think the Democratic Party's herd of voters may not be leading us to the White House, but a cliff -- again. Here are my five reasons for believing so:
1) A good place to begin is to examine just who may have engineered Hillary's "comeback" in Texas and Ohio. Ask yourself why you think America's preeminent right-winger would want to help Hillary and hurt Obama.
Rush Limbaugh takes credit for Hillary's support
March 5, 2008 - Chicago Tribune: Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh claimed at least partial credit today for Hillary Clinton's victories in Texas and Ohio.
Limbaugh spent much of his show Monday exhorting Republican listeners to cross over and vote in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton to prevent Democrats from unifying around Barack Obama as Republicans have done around John McCain...."What we did, if we did anything, is to create a bunch of chaos in the Democrat Party and it worked," Limbaugh said.
The latest numbers show Clinton won by about 3 percentage points in Texas and 10 points in Ohio. Exit polls of voters in the two states found most Republicans who crossed over and voted in the Democratic primary voted for Obama. (Full Story)
March 5, 2008 - Chicago Tribune: Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh claimed at least partial credit today for Hillary Clinton's victories in Texas and Ohio.
Limbaugh spent much of his show Monday exhorting Republican listeners to cross over and vote in the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton to prevent Democrats from unifying around Barack Obama as Republicans have done around John McCain...."What we did, if we did anything, is to create a bunch of chaos in the Democrat Party and it worked," Limbaugh said.
The latest numbers show Clinton won by about 3 percentage points in Texas and 10 points in Ohio. Exit polls of voters in the two states found most Republicans who crossed over and voted in the Democratic primary voted for Obama. (Full Story)
When Rush Limbaugh is your biggest booster, you gotta wonder.
2) After Hillary's twin victories Tuesday night she floated the possibility of a Hillary/Obama ticket. Of course she'd love that, since it would bring in the young and well-educated voters now supporting Obama.
(Polls show that Hillary's support comes largely from the less educated, blue-collar Democratic party demographic. Not that's there's anything wrong with that.. but it should raise at least some question in the minds of voters. Call me an eliltist but, who would you chose to make a life and death decision for you -- well-educated people or not-so well educated people. But I digress)
The idea that Obama would serve as Hillary's Veep is beyond ridiculous. In fact, I can't think of any serious person who would want the VP post under Hillary. Why? Because they would not BE the Vice President in-fact -- Bill Clinton would be the de-facto VP, huddling nightly in the WH family quarters with the President.
A Vice President Barack Obama would be rendered ridiculous, a figure of ridicule and jokes. I just don't see him, or any other serious person, putting themselves in such an untenable, career killing, humiliating situation. Period. Think about it.
3) A race between Barack Obama and John McCain would be a contest between the politics and policies of the future v, the politics and policies of the past. If you like the war in Iraq, great, McCain will give you more of the same. If you liked tax cuts for the rich, he'll give us more of that too. If you liked seeing wages fall, John W. McCain will accomodate.
If you want something completely different, vote for Obama.
