Ah, time to flush politics out of the system. It has made me cranky for 36 hours and I want to move on. Bottom line, politics is a fun game to follow, like baseball, but there are only two teams and one is going to win and one is going to lose. So it's like a death match between Yankee fans and Red Sox fans that spirals into infinity. When there are 30 teams it is not as intense because every year 29 groups of fans will be ultimately disappointed. When there are only 2 teams fans can get way too involved.
As long as the system is in place (democracy and capitalism) and neither team is really trying to change much (and people they're not) and we step back and realize that Presidents don't make laws, we need to understand it will all be okay.
If anyone has the time (and they don't) go back to the last four or five presidential elections and list what the candidates wanted to do and promised to do and what they actually did. No matter who wins in November nothing monumental will change (or at least the odds are highly against it). Since 1976 there have been no earth-shaking policy shifts on the domestic front--yes, the size of government and taxes has ebbed and flowed and safety nets have been strengthened to some extent but its more of the same. The biggest giant in the forest often is the most content. The ratings Obama's speech hit is half of what the Super Bowl reaches and less than the Academy Awards or most nights of the Olympics.
Pols fight and curse and rage over minute issues that rarely alter the big picture. Don't sweat the small stuff. Even I have to remind myself of it sometimes. Our last two presidents had big promises and a few years each of a Congress of their own party and came through with little memorable (NAFTA, Welfare Reform, Lower Taxes, Homeland Security) and even blunders (Impeachment, Iraq) have done little to slow the juggernaut of the USA. Congress holds the power and if you can't tame Congress you're not going to get much done. Pelosi and Reid will be as much of a pain to President Obama as they will to President McCain. Congress wants to wet their beaks as much as the next guy. The Washington establishment isn't going anywhere.
- Think of it, 16 years and only two presidents. The only time that has happened in our history was 1801-1825 when the Virginia Dynasty of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe gave us 3 in 24 years and the 20 year interim of FDR and Truman between 1933-1953.
- As much as a solid minority of Americans lust for change, the mob known as the majority doesn't much care for it.
- I probably won't comment on politics for a while. I take everything personally and an attack on my essence. That's why I could never be a politician, I can't cage the emotional aspect.
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