Lip Service to Democracy - A Rant

[catscradle]

I sit and read the latest news on the Democratic campaign bullshit and now I honestly don't care who wins. Anyone but Lieberman seems a good vote. Why the hell not? The media is running this circus. They probably already have the templates made for who's going to grab the Democrat nomination. Hell, they probably already have the president picked. Why wait till the last minute crunch?

Anyway - So now Dean is taking back his comments that he doesn't like the caucus system because the state of Iowa - and I guess it's required by law that all Iowans love their caucus system - has taken offense. He's vowing to make the Iowa caucus first in 2008. Thank God.

Some years ago he said he thinks the caucus is run by special interest groups (you think?? SHOCKING!) and that it's inconvenient for the majority of Americans who don't have 8 hours to take off work and sit in on it.

You know, that's probably the best reason I can think of to vote for Dean. Not a good one, but the best one. I happen to live in a caucus state, so my voice won't be heard in the primaries and I think that sucks.

And he retracted it.

I guess you don't want to piss off Iowans or people with Confederate flags on their cars.

But this is what we're wasting time on. And I know this goes on in all the election and nothing new under the sun - but this election my total hatred of the unilateral Democrate-Republican party has hit a new height.

Over Christmas I was talking with geckodru, he came up with a good system. Toss the Dems and Reps - they're too far over the wagon. There's no saving them. Instead, let's set up a new tri-party system. The Greens, Libertarians and the Reform party would represent a good cross section of just about everyone's ideologies.

It's too freakin bad that I sit here and I don't give a shit who wins. The system has broken down so far, that I don't think it actually matters. It's the same damn party and any Democrat that was actually saying something different got marginalized out of the race by the media. And we stand for this and wave our little Dean and Clark stickers instead of demanding fair and equal treatment for all. Why should we? Our candidate gets coverage. And what were those others candidates saying anyway?

Okay - we can't do worse than Bush (or Lieberman). But that doesn't make any person that isn't him fit for the job.

Comments

[thebratqueen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's been frustrating watching the Dean thing. For example he's apparently a very secular guy, so he gets slammed for being anti-religion (which IMO is not the point with politicians but whatever) and told that if he wants to woo those religious folks that might somehow be undecided on Bush he needs to act like he's into religion.

Which is annoying as all hell because frankly some of us *like* politicians that remember that it's nobody's damn business what their religion is, but OTOH I can't say that it's wrong for his advisers to say that the freaky religious folk need pandering to.

So out come the reports about Dean praying in the morning and photo ops of him at churches and, you guessed it, people start slamming him for talking about religion and pimping religion just to get the vote.

Head, meet desk.

And that's just Dean. I'm sure the other candidates have been going through the same insanity too.

I'm just so frustrated about the whole thing. The system is garbage and totally jerked around by PR and the media and it's insane. Bush is screwing us over more ways than we can count but the thing people remember is the bullet point of "Vote Democrat and your taxes go up by $1900 next year". ARGH!

It's times like this you almost want to say the founding fathers knew what they were doing when they tried to limit who can vote.

[catscradle.livejournal.com]

Frankly Dean's apologizing and pandering to the media is a huge turn off for me. But you're right in that's what it takes to keep everyone happy and interested. He makes headlines, people remember him.

But it's the candidates that stuck to their guns and didn't pander that I'd like to see out in front. You had people like Kucinich and Braun outright challenge the media; take on a fight with Ted Koppel and ABC news - the audience LOVED it! And if the majority of Americans were able to see that on a regular bases, I wonder what their reaction will be. But we won't ever know, because ABC and the rest of the media will not cover that. ABC pulled their "embedded" reporter off the campaigns of Kucinich, Braun and Sharpton because they didn't play the little games.

Kucinich's popularity and contributions spiked after that debate because for the first time people saw a person that spoke what they really felt. And the people agreed. That audience agreed - he had the largest show of support of any of the cadidates that night. But after that the media cut him off. He's going to have to claw his way in front of the camera if he wants more coverage now.

That's why people elect and love the Jesse Venturas and Jim Traficants of the political arena. No matter how insane they might sound, they make no apologies for what they say - they just say it and stick behind their word. When you don't have a media machine blocking you, marginalizing you off the race - you win.

I can't support the most "electable" candidate, because by their very nature they're cannibals. Rather than pointing out the serious issue at hand - that the media is deciding elections - they pander to the media and even their faus paus get them coverage - they know that. Just get your face out there and keep it out there and the people will remember you. Good attention, bad attention, it's still all attention. It's all about fucking over the otehr cadidates anyway and if they're not smart enough to play the game, that's their own fault.

Jesus, why would we want that mentality running anything? Knowing how to play the game means somewhere down the line we're all going to get sold out in the end. No, I'd rather have someone that was their own person in office - not having the strings pulled by corporations. Though that may be a pipedream.

So I guess - anyone but Bush.

[vasiliki.livejournal.com]

Toss the Dems and Reps - they're too far over the wagon. There's no saving them.

As a watcher, I agree.