So Many Meaningless American Voters

Up front we encourage everybody who has strong, honest, compelling feelings about who they desire to win the Presidency to vote in the November United States Presidential Election. Vote in person or make the necessary arrangements to cast an absentee ballot. If you have strong feelings about a Township, City, County, State, Congressional or Ballot Issue that will be on the ballot, go vote and be heard. If nothing else, everyone who votes is heard even if it is simply as a number in a column in some registry that will be recorded for posterity, in this way your vote holds immeasurable value. But let us be rational and honest here. The vast majority of Americans voting in the Presidential race are casting votes which will have absolutely negligible if any impact on the election. If you live in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, or any number of true through and through Democrat bastions and you are voting for anybody other than the reelection of President Obama, you are wasting your time more than likely as these states are not in doubt. On the other hand, if you live in Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming or any of the dyed in the wool Republican Strongholds, your voting for anybody other than challenger Mitt Romney is going to be meaningless.  By meaningless is that it will have absolutely no effect upon the final Electoral College vote. Sure, if Romney breaks 45% in Maryland or Obama breaks 45% in Wyoming, that will make news and there will be talk about how no State is truly out of the running and how candidates cannot take any State for granted, but that will be the limit of such a result. Such anomalies will be useful only to those of us writing editorial columns to use to denigrate the victory as being so very close and how the candidate could have lost or does not have such a mandate, but other than such posturing it will not make one whit of a difference.

 

None of this is of any surprise to most of us and is kind of liberating to an even smaller group. Among this small group are those who will be pounding their chests about their brave vote for some third party candidate and how they fought bravely against the two party monopoly. Humor them though I have a feeling there will be a greater number of such people this time around. It will not change the end result but it does mean there is some hope of real change coming. Some of us have felt this coming change for a while though not in sufficient strength to actually matter. Hopefully, that may be in the wind and blowing closer every day. There are two groups in our society who may be on the vanguard of such a change. One group are the true believers who may have thought the Occupy Wall Street Movement was the start of a new vision for the future. The other group is the combination of the Tea Party and the 9/12 Movement who are currently attempting to bring about change through the Republican Party and either will take over the leadership of the Republican Party or we may see the birth of a new political force named The Tea Party. But for this election, that day has yet to arrive. Despite the fact that this election will remain as a choice between the Democrat incumbent candidate and the Republican elite chosen candidate, the first election where a sea change may sweep in and surprise the establishment elite has begun as a small wave, a little swell in the middle of the ocean, but that swell, like its counterpart in nature, will possibly become a tsunami as it comes closer to fruition and crashes onto an election day shorefront in the near future. As many know, the two established parties have rigged the system so as to minimize any challenge to their preeminence and made the successful formation and election of a candidate from outside their ranks extremely difficult. There is evidence that there exists a large and growing number of Americans who have simply had all they are going to take from the corrupt two party system where a small elite cabal controls the path to election victory and power. The masses are growing restless and that can forge a new path to office and a new set of rules where for the time being the people’s will is heard and refuses to remain stifled.

 

In the near future we have the Presidential Election this November and a campaign in full swing. We will hear on the news almost nightly what one candidate or the other said today at some rally or in a press release or in response to questions from the press at a conference or when pressed at an appearance. Of course, depending on which news source you view, the slant will favor one candidate or the other. For most of us everything we hear will simply echo how we feel as most people tend to watch the news reports from people who share their views whenever possible. This trend has grown even more intense with the flood of choices between the internet and cable and satellite news sources providing both a wider range of choices and allowing a personal choice that is very tailored to one’s views. This has had two related affects upon the voting public. The first is new people often are so isolated into their particular viewpoint and do not receive any news or information which is contrary to their own viewpoint that they may actually start to believe that everybody believes as they do as they seldom if ever have cause to interact with news or people who hold differing views. This leads to the other effect which is an inability to understand or accept any results which are contrary to one’s seemingly universally held positions as such results run contrary to everything they have seen, heard or discussed with others. This is much of the reason why the American society has become so polarized and partisan. Most everyone has the ability to live in a closed world where everything with which they interact is a reflection of their beliefs and views. Some claim that this phenomenon is very debilitating as it secludes people from dealing with opposing views and leads to a more isolated existence insulating one from new or different ideas thus causing a kind of political and social tunnel vision. This is often exhibited by people expressing complete bewilderment when confronted with results from elections and such which are diametrically opposite of those which they expected. You will know you are witnessing such when you hear somebody claim, “This makes no sense because I do not know anybody who would have supported this.”

 

The most obvious side effect of this phenomenon is that the candidates for President only end up campaigning in those select States where the outcome is not yet a guaranteed known. President Obama is not going to waste his time attempting to gain a majority of the voters in Oklahoma or Wyoming as they are two of the most conservative States. Likewise, Mitt Romney is not going to spend much time in Massachusetts or Maryland as this would be a waste of his resources. What is possible is each candidate making appearances in States they already know they are going to win for two basic reasons. The first is they are guaranteed a huge turnout of wildly supportive and friendly crowds which will play well on the nightly newscasts. The second is that even though a Candidate is guaranteed to win a particular State, you do not want your supporters to think that you are taking their support for granted; you will want to spend some time, energy and resources as thanks for your support events in these places. To figure out which States are the ones where it is very possible that every single vote will be acutely important, just observe which States where both candidates spend the majority of their time, campaign appearances, advertising dollars, and have every locally known celebrity and politician hitting the stump for them and, of course, appearing with them giving laudatory speeches and introductions. The one advantage for those who do not live in what is called a swing state is that they do not have to suffer through the final ten weeks push with endless campaign commercials on their local television and radio networks. The local politicians usually only have sufficient funding for two or three weeks of such heavy hitting the airwaves while national candidates have not only their funding for commercials, there are Super PACs (Political Action Committees) running advocacy advertisements which are actually candidate ads carefully camouflaged in order to get around campaign laws and restrictions.  So, if you live in one of the swing states, you have our sympathy as you endure the last few weeks of being berated and barraged by campaign glitter, and the rest of you, enjoy the quiet and do check and see who it is that your fellow voters are going to choose so you do not get caught claiming, “Who won? How? I don’t know anybody so idiotic as to vote for them!” The rest of us will appreciate not having to explain and you very likely do not want to know why or how, just accept that they did win, even without the votes of anybody you know.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Much Ado About Nothing Unexpected

Well, I do not know if you have heard, but the Republican Party at their windswept convention have voted for Mitt Romney to be their actually declared candidate against President Barack Obama in this November election. No surprise there, was there. I guess this means we have finally seen the last of that phrase which has been driving me absolutely loony for the last many months, Mitt Romney, the presumptive candidate for the Republican Party. I hope this event came as much of a surprise for you as it was for me, which is somewhere down there around none. The biggest complaint I have heard from commentators has been the complete lack of confetti, balloons, and other signs of reverie. My opinion is it is about time the childish rah-rah cheerleader and homecoming style celebratory goofiness may have finally been relegated to the good-old-days where such silliness was cute and fun. With the problems the United States is facing and the serious nature of the choice the American people will make, which may very well define the future of the United States and all that entails and that will result from the coming election, perhaps it is best that the lightheartedness has been put aside for some future time when it will once again become appropriate.

I, for one, am glad that there was a more subdued response where the many delegates who represented presumably adults who voted in the many and various primaries actually treated the solemn and serious execution of their duties with the respect it deserves. I suspect that I will be among a small minority in this opinion as many would rather say not having the customary balloons, confetti, noise-makers, kazoos, and other raucous stupidity will be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm. Which would you rather have leading the United States going forward, somebody who was serious and thoughtful and did not bother with traditions of reverie or somebody who treats their nomination to represent one of the major political parties as their candidate for the most important office currently in the world as if he was just elected homecoming king. I would not be the least bit upset if this marks the beginning of these conventions taking a more serious and businesslike approach to the nominations and elections. Yes, I know that there will still be the catchy tunes and phrases run in ads ad infinitum as such tactics have been proven to be effective and I unfortunately have to agree with the idea that nobody ever went broke by underestimating the immaturity of the American public. Needless to say, many of the little quips which stood in place of seriousness from many of the state delegations’ chosen speaker were further proof of playing to the lowest intellects among us. This is something I relegate to the personality of those who would go to any extreme in order to attend a convention.

All that is left now is for a train of Republican Party members who are being honored or featured for reasons that, for some, escape the rational of any reasoning person, to stand before a captive audience that would likely cheer anything trotted out to the podium to have their fifteen minutes of fame, and many will attempt to stretch that time limit and overstate and overstay their welcome. There will likely be some actual work done such as approving the planks and rejecting others building a platform which will forever be completely ignored but treated as if it held actual importance when the other party takes pot shots and attacks it. There will also likely be rules voted upon which were likely made the old fashion way, in a semi-dark room full of cigar smoke hidden out of the sight of the vast majority of regular folk. None of this is a symptom that is part of just the Republican Party as it happens in the Democrat Party as well as the Constitution Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party, and every other political group. Then comes the great finale where we will likely see the balloons, confetti, noisemakers and the rest of the silliness we fortunately escaped today. Some things in life are just plain and simple unavoidable, but one can always hold out hope that the adults have taken hold of the reins of power, if only.

Beyond the Cusp

Romney Makes Ryan His Veep Choice

Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his running mate yesterday. If Mitt Romney has any luck whatsoever, then the Republican self-anointed leadership will come out unanimously aghast in opposition of his choosing Representative Paul Ryan. One reason this may actually prove to be the case is due to Representative Ryan’s budget formulations which he proposed successfully twice in the House of Representatives. The high Lord Muckie-Mucks of the Republican Party are really just a bunch of Democrat lite who support government as the solution to most problems. These are the people who gave us other wonderful choices such as George W. Bush who added to the size and scope of government nearly as much as any Democrat before him including both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Baines Johnson. For those who take offense and are claiming I am way off base here, may I remind you of just two small projects laid upon us that massively grew the size, scope, and cost of government permanently going into the future. The two programs are “No Child Left Behind” and the “Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act”. So, one point in favor of Paul Ryan is his belief in actual cuts in spending instead of simply cutting the increase and proclaiming deficit defeated. But was this the best choice, an inspired choice, a great misstep, or what?

Representative Paul Ryan is obviously a fiscal conservative which will go far in underlining the Romney message that budget cuts even if it is of those programs often perceived as third rail instant political death to suggest cuts are necessary if the United States is to avoid catastrophic financial Armageddon. Ryan is very likely to be a good fit with the Romney financial platform with a stress on tax cuts tied directly to budgetary reductions phased in over time with the aim of reaching budget surpluses within the decade. This is a reasoned manner to return the United States to fiscal sanity as we have been taken so close to the edge that being able to prevent the country going beyond the cusp demands serious restraints in spending. The big questions are not about the fiscal policies of Romney and Ryan as those are well known. Ryan will likely support Romney in any jobs programs as this is seen as a Romney strong point. Simply restraining government and promising to allow private growth and a steady and unchanging atmosphere will go a long ways to producing job growth. The repeal of all of Obama Care without any ideas of replace would also spur more job creation and here Ryan is likely to be a good influence as he supports repeal over replace of Obama Care.

The big questions about both Romney and Ryan come in the area of foreign policy. Ryan is known as a supporter of a strong military and, along with Romney, as a supporter of Israel as our strongest ally in the Middle East. What we will need to find out is whether Romney and Ryan are against the military adventurism which many have used to refer to our efforts at nation building. Should their foreign policy be one of support for those who have a similar world view and withholding interactions with those who oppose our principles of governance, human rights, and other principles they are likely to find this as a winning policy. If Romney and Ryan should support intervention to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, then as long as they are not in favor of prolonged presence with nation building and instead put in place an interim government and remove our troops as soon as the Iranians hold elections for their new government, this is likely supportable by the American public over a repeat of Afghanistan or Iraq. It is also more likely that the United States would gain a friend by engaging in as short an intervention as logistically possible and trusting the people of Iran to choose wisely. At least the people in Iran already have experienced Islamic Sharia rule so are unlikely to follow the path taken by Egypt, Libya, and others after the Arab Spring chilled and turned to an Arab Winter.

Where the economy and jobs have been chosen as the most likely deciding areas for this coming Presidential election, there are those who hold that foreign policy is the highest importance when choosing a President. We already have been told that Romney will be different than President Obama when it comes to financial policies and the addition of Ryan can only make this difference greater, but it remains to be seen how different a Romney foreign policy will be to that of President Obama. Ryan is known to be almost a polar opposite of President Obama, especially where the Middle East, and Israel in particular, but we will have to wait for Romney to disclose his entire foreign policy interests and plans. Ryan will likely be seen as a positive move as Ryan’s is a fiscal conservative, pro-military strength, a social conservative, and a personable individual and a good communicator. He has an ability to take difficult concepts and ideas, especially concerning budgets and fiscal planning, and making such understandable for the average person. This ability along with Ryan’s warm personality will add to and fill what some have seen as a void in a Romney campaign. Ryan may prove the deciding factor if the election should be a close contest. Oh, and if you have not figured it out yet, I really like Ryan as Romney’s choice for Veep.

Beyond the Cusp