The Politics of No Real Choice

One of the moments where I'm outed as Gay Friendly and Pro Choice in Nebraska.

Each year, I go to vote and am struck by the number of votes I cast that basically represent the least of evils. What is it about our system that continually produces an entire line up of candidates that makes me want to choose none of the above?  Well, that’s a some what rhetorical question because my answer is that we have two demons in the process right now.  The more salient question is how do we exorcise the demons?

The first reason we get terrible candidates is purity pledges forced by special interest groups.  I’ve got my personal example on hand again for you.  You have no idea what it’s like to be a Republican trying to run for an office and be pro-choice or gay friendly.  You find out really quickly that there are people living within blocks of your house that are worse than the Taliban. There’s a huge chance that they are sitting in the pews of churches near you and your children go to school with them.  They just look normal and sane until they’ve determined you’re their enemy and apostate on some near and dear creed which they feel the need force on us all. Then, you start living through Invasion of the Body Snatchers and you see that Donald Sutherland look in their eyes, hear their screeches, and show up on the bad end of that accusatory finger.

This sort’ve goose step ideological mentality ensures only the worst of the worst come through or people that refuse to stand up for what they believe least they get on the receiving end of a bloody awful witch hunt.  When I ran for office I was told over and over again that it would really make my life a bit easier if I’d give up my principles and not try to buck the crazy base on that one issue.  Believe me, that base is crazy.  They will say and do anything to stop you and I mean that literally to the most extreme degree.  Now there are tax pledges, anti-GLBT civil rights pledges, pro “only my definition of marriage” pledges, “guns and no butter” pledges and all others sorts of pledges you have to sign to pass muster.  Purity tests do not bring normal people into a process. Normal people have nuances and subtleties and recognize that life has them too.

The second reason is the money. It takes a lot to buy yourself a seat in a statehouse, a mansion, or any where near Capital Hill.  This also puts you in the position of having to listen a little more closely to the people that fund you instead of the people that vote for you.  This gives some advantages to incumbents.  You almost have to wait for their inevitable sex scandal to get a foot in the door.  Well, that or they piss off one of those wild eyed special interest groups who go on a holy crusade.  Most incumbents have inoculated themselves against these things unless a new group of single minded crusaders–like the tea party–rises to the occasion.  Look at the Tea Party.  That is basically an insurgency funded by the Koch Brothers who specialize in unleashing demons that wreck our government so they can become more rich and powerful.  They foist crazies and money on the process.

I guess I’m talking about this because there’s yet another poll that says a pox on both your houses.  Regular voters sending poxes never seem to work as well as the poxes cast by multibillion dollar corporations and holy war crusaders, I guess.  Polls continually say the majority of people in this country think that neither part is actually good for the country or its economy right now.

A CNN/ORC International Poll released Tuesday indicates that 56 percent of Americans say the congressional Republicans’ policies will move the country in the wrong direction, with 53 percent of the public saying the same about policies of the Democrats in Congress.

See full results (PDF)

“Men and women agree that the GOP policies are a bust, but women are split on the Democratic policies while men continue to dislike them. There is a generation gap as well, with younger Americans tending to favor the Democrats’ policies and older Americans more in the GOP camp,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

The survey was conducted Friday through Sunday, during the congressional standoff between Democrats and Republicans over disaster relief funding threatened to possibly force a federal government shutdown. An agreement preventing a government shutdown was reached late Monday night.

According to the poll, a majority of Americans don’t like either the Republican Party or the Democratic Party and the favorable ratings for the tea party movement are even lower.

My father has adopted the standpoint of voting all incumbents out. My problem with that strategy is that it brings in the worst of the purity politicians who don’t comprise and still wind up with full coffers.  The other thing is that when you prove you’re a good water bearer for the party, they’ll gerrymander a district for you that’s like kryptonite to even the most super of challengers. Again, some part of the system will protect you.  Either a group like the values crusaders or the biggest industry in your state will let you do the worst job in the world as long as you go along with their strict and narrow agenda.

Here’s a good example on a potential presidential candidate I really can’t stand.  The gray flannel suit crowd of the Republican party likes Chris Christie for some odd reason. They’re pleading him to jump into the race.  Already, there’s a list out of why he won’t pass the purity tests even though he seems like a fairly conventional republican candidate to me.  Evidently, he’s got the Perry problem on immigrants and worse than that, he’s shown a little laxity on the Guns and no Butter republican mantra.

HANNITY: Are there any issues where you are, quote, moderate to left as a Republican?

CHRISTIE: Listen, I favor some of the gun-control measures we have in New Jersey.

HANNITY: Bad idea.

CHRISTIE: Listen, we have a densely-populated state, and there’s a big hand gun problem in New Jersey. Now, I don’t support all the things that the governor supports by a long stretch. But I think on guns — certain gun control issues, looking at it from a law-enforcement perspective, seeing how many police officers were killed, we have an illegal gun problem in New Jersey.

So, Christie has a purity problem in key areas that may stop him from getting through a primary.  His name may not make it onto one of those little polling cards of marching orders they hand out in churches and corporate offices.  Now, I’m not fond of  Tony Christie Soprano, but you have to give him credit for being a little out of the box on a few items in a party that demands purity. Notice how Hannity slams him for his pragmatic stance on guns in NJ.

When I finally noticed I was continually voting democrat out of the lesser of two evils strategy, I switched parties when I got down here to New Orleans.  (Now, I’m an independent.)  Democrats seem to be willing to vote for any one that says the right things and does the complete opposite when in office.  I don’t find that particularly admirable either.  There’s a certain amount of consistency in goosestepping ideologues that you just don’t see in people that are forced to continually vote for the lesser of evils.  I am truly tired of voting for the candidate that I perceive will damage the country the least. That strategy explains like 98% of my votes since I turned 18.

This brings me back around to the question of how do we change this?  How do we get the people that benefit from organizations that can megafund them to put down the crack pipes?  How do we stop these single issue crusaders from continually sending us their zombies? What’s a voter to do?  My voting strategy next year is looking to be stay home because no matter how I try, I’m still voting for evil.  I shouldn’t have to vote for evil even when it’s a lesser evil.