November 2012

Seems like it's a long way off, right?  In fact it is a long way off, roughly 17 months away and yet, the way things work politically you would think it's right around the corner.

Democracy may be "the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried," but it certainly seems that one major shortcoming of our system is the fact that in order to do anything you have to convince people that you are worth having around, and in the age of mass media that has become a 24/7/365 endeavor.  Unfortunately, all that campaigning seems to leave less time for governing.  This is true for everyone in our national government regardless of which party he or she represents.

Our system has evolved into a monstrosity that promotes effective campaigning and often empty promises; if those promises go unfulfilled then it is clearly due to some kind of conspiracy or obstruction and certainly not indicative that the promises were unrealistic in the first place.  Take abortion for example, how many Republican candidates have campaigned on a platform that includes being pro-life and banning abortion?  Probably all of them.  Yet in the years since Roe v. Wade, how many Republicans have been able to make abortion illegal?  How many have actually tried?  Similarly, how many Democrats have talked about stricter gun laws (fewer, but still many)?  Rather than stricter gun laws, we now have laws in some states that allow people to buy assault rifles like they are at an arms bazar in Mogadishu.

Nevertheless, what we have come to expect from our politicians is 24/7 campaigning.  After all, there are multiple news networks with 24/7 coverage and they can only show Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton so often.  ESPN fills 24 hours with "sports" like NASCAR and bowling.  CNN and FOX fill 24 hours with campaigns that begin in earnest 17-19 months before the election, and Wal-Mart fills six months of retail sales with Christmas (tangental).  All this campaigning seems to leave precious little time for legislating, although it certainly makes for good "debates" that are destined to go nowhere: Democrats are going to kill grandma; Republicans are going to dismantle Medicare; lower taxes, no raise them; and worst of all, global warming is a hoax...

These "debates"are perhaps somewhat substantive but they take up a lot of time and generate attention.  So rather than addressing the issues, we talk about them in a watered-down, demagogued-up manner that fires people up with false promises and substantial demonizing of the enemy.

So with that I would encourage everyone to forget about November 2012 until maybe February or March of 2012.  I realize that such a wish is my own little fantasy rather than a political reality, but imagine how great "the worst form of government except all the others" could be if we would let those governing do their jobs and stop demanding that they spend their entire elected term working on getting reelected.