Poetry and Prose

Before we start, and this is sort of around the same topic as the rest of this post, it's in the neighborhood anyway. What's up with the Senate Majority Leader? First of all, I was surprised to find out that Harry Reid has the ability to say anything even remotely interesting or note-worthy. Second, it's not the racism in Harry Reid's comment about Barack Obama that struck me, so much as it was the inability to stop himself. Most people, if they accidentally said the first thing, about people being more comfortable with Obama because of his "light skin", would catch themselves and try to walk it back. Senator Reid, on the other hand, kept digging until he got to the part about Barack Obama not having a "negro dialect, unless he chooses to". I can't even begin to guess at what he meant by "negro dialect". Also, I know it's tough for some people to keep up with the politically correct lingo, but I'm pretty sure we all got the memo about "negro". For me, the real genius is the "unless" section. There's just so much there to be uncomfortable about, it's like a 7-layer dip of racial insensitivity. I may have to read that whole book. OK, on to the blog...

A broken campaign promise is the easiest target in politics. Especially now, when even local politicians can't say anything without being video taped. All you have to do is show the tape of the candidate making a promise followed by the new footage of the same person saying or doing exactly the opposite of what was promised, and there it is. Candidate Obama explicitly and repeatedly promised to have Congressional health care negotiations televised on CSPAN. Now, not only is the White House not pushing Congress to have televised negotiations, but they are, in fact, pushing Congress to skip conference committee negotiations altogether to get a bill to the President's desk as quickly as possible.

This was a silly and unkeepable campaign promise and candidate Obama, then a Senator, knew better(by the way, blogger spellcheck insists that unkeepable isn't a word. I say it's my blog and I decide what's a word). Cynically, I think the Obama campaign knew this was a good thing to promise, even if it couldn't be delivered. I think they also knew failure to deliver on this promise could be blamed on Congress. And I think they knew that while people liked this idea when they heard it, they wouldn't really get that upset when it didn't happen. Come to think of it, maybe I'm not the cynical one.

The fun part about this is even the Republicans aren't making too much noise about it, because they don't want to negotiate in public anymore than anyone else does. Even the political media gave it sort of a glancing blow, because they know any televised negotiations would be proceeded by secret private negotiations so all the tough decisions could be made before they got in front of the cameras. And I'm not really bothered either, because I think if the average person actually saw how political deals get done in this country, they'd be overwhelmed by the urge to sit down in a corner and cry for a while.

This whole little episode reminded me of the old saying about campaigning in poetry in governing in prose. I've actually thought about this a few times lately, since the Senate has spent the last few months embarrassing themselves on national TV whenever they get the chance, and I don't remember any campaign promises about the Senate floor looking like recess in a kindergarten. It used to be the House of Representatives was the arrogant, inexperienced, childish, power hungry idiots of Washington, and the Senate was supposed to be the grown-ups. Now where do I find the grown-ups? If the Senate is currently writing prose, it's a 3200 page novel with a picture of a giant middle finger on the cover.

I bring this up now because it's about to be campaign season again. That's right! Put on your votin' shoes, it's the 2010 midterm elections! I'm usually the kind of person who tells people to pay attention and vote, because it's important. And it should be important, the whole House and a little over 1/3rd of the Senate is up for re-election. Honestly though, I'm not excited, at this point I'm barely even interested. Why? I feel like I don't really care what any of the candidates are saying.

I'll hear Republicans tell me about tax cuts. Republicans are like South Park underpants gnomes when it comes to the economy. Phase 1: tax cuts - Phase 2: ? - Phase 3: thriving economy. Democrats will tell me about tax cuts too, but they'll be far less convincing. The national security debate will be similarly similar, but I won't care because, as far as I can tell, Congress' role in national security presently seems to be limited to bitching about it. I might even hear some Republicans tell me about big government liberalism, and maybe even socialism(my thoughts on that last thing are coming soon to an internet near you).

Right now, the most interesting thing for me about Republicans this year is whether or not they'll go back to illegal immigration as an issue. It's hard for Republicans to talk about immigration without offending Hispanic voters, which would be political suicide at the moment. On the other hand, I wonder if they can't help themselves. On top of everything, I'll have to endure the usual Republican talking points about values and misreading the second amendment, and more than a few tearful rants from Glenn Beck.

Impossibly, the Democrats are somehow worse. Why worse? Because I don't care what Democratic candidates say. The party as a whole can't govern worth a damn. I swear if you took 4 Democratic Senators to an IHOP and told them they couldn't have any food until they agreed on one style of pancakes for all four of them to eat, they'd all die of starvation. So Democrats can make a lot of promises, and some of them will be good ideas, but I have no confidence they can get anything done.

This isn't to say I hate both parties. I don't think either party is inherently bad, or full of bad people. One of the underlying points of the poetry and prose quote is the idea that you can't really govern in poetry, and you can't win by campaigning in prose. I've also commented here that we get the leaders we deserve, and we get the campaigns we deserve too. My point is only that I'm having a hard time getting interested in this next round of elections, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. I'll try my best to pay attention and care, but I think it'll be a lot like eating my vegetables. It's hard to care that much when it's so difficult to see any real correlation between campaign promises and governing actions.

Maybe I can start a third party. We're going to need a name though, and maybe some principles. Tell you what, I'll get back to you on that. Either way, I don't think my new, awesome third party is going to be ready for 2010. So, in the mean time, I have to try and muster an argument for getting invested in the upcoming midterm elections. Here's the best I can do...

The crazies on both sides of the aisle will be voting. Both parties have plenty of misguided lunatics, and they like to vote. So, if the rest of us stay home, we're pretty much letting the lunatics decide our future. Hmm, yeah I think that did it. I'm off to learn who's running against my current Congressman. I voted for him last time, and as far as I can tell, he's been pretty much inert since then (OK, that's probably not fair, but I watch as much political news as anyone and I haven't heard his name once in a year, so, at best, he seems to be voting as he's told and staying quiet). If the Republican in the race seems smart and reasonable, he's got a decent shot at my vote. If not, maybe I'll stick with the current guy, if I haven't heard his name at all, at least it means he hasn't done or said anything incredibly stupid yet, like, say, the Senate Majority Leader.