Considered Opinions

There is a sense in the air that angry blacks will derail Hillary Clinton’s election in the Fall because they are committed to Obama. There’s also the rumor that angry women will derail Barack Obama’s election because he’s not female. Further, proponents of both seem to see conspiracies behind this.

I can’t fault either point of view, though I think they are exaggerated. But we should be aware that a contest between a woman and a black (regardless of platform) has a built in conflict between two abused groups. I’m sure there are males who would rather not see a woman in the White House, and those of both sexes who dislike the idea of a black. I don’t think there are any conspiracies at work though; conspiracies are hard to hide, and besides, the race is so close that, for example, Clinton is making too respectable a showing for someone who’s fellow Democrats are out to get her. I’m skeptical.

I’m pretty sure that the liberals and conservatives (Whatever those words mean today – I don’t know anybody who is wholly one or the other) will vote those leanings in the Fall, rather than vote purely on race or gender.

There’s another group out there, too–what you might call traditional centrist Republicans who are as horrified by Bush’s policies as most of us; I wonder which way they will go, out of party loyalty for more Bush in the form of McCain, or across the line in an attempt to get back to some kind of fiscal responsibility, world-aware foreign policy, etc.? I have no idea which way they are going to bounce.

One thing’s for sure, myself and many others are sick of what passes for the process in this country – 527 groups, the K-Street lobby permeating every campaign, Swift Boating, slime ads, and all the rest. And I am profoundly angry with the media circus. For a business with Constitutional protection, they have a mighty slack attitude toward the responsibilities that come with that. I wonder if Jefferson would repeat his famous quote today.

I have to say that I blame the voters as much for putting up with this as I do the parties and media for propagating it. We are becoming a nation of, by, and for the foolish. Some times I think we should bring back literacy tests, or make native-borne citizens pass the same test immigrants do before being allowed full citizenship.

We badly need electoral reform (Reform: another word who’s meaning has been lost—now I duck when I hear it.) on every level, but in this environment, it’s hard to see how it would come about. Well, here’s hoping someone makes it a priority in 2009.

Some of my friends are talking about a third-party effort. I’d probably sign up this year if I didn’t think it would help put the wrong guy in office (Remember the Nader effect). I think such an effort would take a long time to assemble, like the Republican party in the mid-19th century – several election cycles – and then it would have to appear to the people as a going concern with an attractive agenda. The original Republicans had the issue of slavery to ride and two existing parties who had weakened themselves over a period of decades. That helped a lot.

While I think it would be a very hard row to hoe, if everybody were willing to take the ten or fifteen years needed, I’d most likely sign on. The parties of today are so deeply mortgaged to the old, ugly politics of dirt and influence that it is difficult to see how either could be saved.