The Apes of Washington

"In American they have the Republicans who are the equivalent of our Conservative Party; and then they have the Democrats ... who are the equivalent of our Conservative Party."
So joked Beyond the Fringe over forty years ago, but the same logic still applies to the political egg-and-spoon race currently being run in Massachusetts between Martha Coakley and Scott Brown, both of whom are modern-day equivalents of Jonathan Swift's Tub-thumpers: platitude-spouting representatives of shibboleth-specific issues and causes, shaking their fists at the country's problems without ever achieving anything, except mangling the hopes and ideals they inherited from the framers of our Constitution. My many dogmatic friends tell me that I "absolutely must" vote for one to prevent the other getting elected; but what kind of democracy is that? I might as well vote for a baboon or a parrot for all the difference it will make.
Of course, there is a third candidate, the unfortunately named Joe Kennedy (no relation), but you have to Google the man and then skip to page seven of the results and scroll down to find out any information about him. I have not seen one single television advertisement for Kennedy, yet this morning's broadcasts were stuffed with promotional spots for the terrible twins, Coakley and Brown. Even the furniture discounters with their giveaway 42-inch HDTV's couldn't get a look in on WHDH.
So I don't know about you, but for me change I can believe in will only happen when there is a candidate I can believe in. And I don't believe that is going to happen anytime soon.

Comments

[Robert David Sullivan]

"change I can believe in will only happen when there is a candidate I can believe in"

Sadly, that almost always means standing on the sidelines in a slow-moving, incrementalist democracy such as ours. Voting for the lesser of two evils is baked into our system.

[american fez]

Indeed - "half-baked" into our system if you aske me.