That famous cry of the Black Knight from Monty Python can be heard throughout the Republican primaries, How long will the candidates keep whacking away at each other? No one knows.
Too many egos are at work here huffing and puffing away, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Thanks, William Falkner. I am, of course, one delighted Democrat. However, a vigorous two-party campaign is a good thing. We need to question our assumptions, and our directions need to be defended or curbed. We need to be hearing concrete plans for a sane energy policy, not "Drill, Baby, drill!" We need to address economic issues, because our Wall Street troubles are far from over. Health care is going to be too expensive, whether or not the Supreme Court upholds the current law. We spend far more than any civilized country in the world to provide mediocre care to a few, none to many. Let's hear some better plans.
Quit whacking away at each other and give us some solid ideas to solve these problems. Don't waste your money whining about contraception, for crying out loud. No one asked you to solve that non-problem.
What this election season may do is cast doubt on fortune tellers. I haven't heard Madame Sees-all try to call this one. Maybe the Horoscopes can help.
3 comments:
I think the contraception debate was unfairly (and deliberately) foisted upon the candidates. It's true that they could have avoided discussing it, but that would have meant ignoring the fact that a federal agency (not the legislature!) unilaterally removed a freedom previously granted to religious institutions.
My point (which was not well made) is that the candidates ought to be addressing governmental issues, especially since the Supreme Court has yet to rule on the Affordable Care Act. Other courts will have time to rule on whether one section, or the rules promulgated, are legal. .Job security for lawyers.
The candidates themselves chose, once the debate was "foisted upon them" to focus on the contraception itself, and whether or not it should be allowed, much less paid for, and what using contraception says about the women who use it.
This "debate" was echoed by everyone from Rush Limbaugh to various local and state representatives, and became the story in and of itself.
The candidates could have chosen to steer the conversation in the direction of freedom of religious institutions and how their rights and freedoms intersect with government and secular corporations. But they didn't.
They chose to go for the more sell-able shocking sound bite fun and appeal to the most conservative of the very conservative far right side. And presumably, they don't care if their debate about this issue makes them sound like a bunch of misogynist medieval jackasses, as long as they can beat their fellow candidates to the votes at the far far right end of the pool.
I'd like to think that the fact that they've alienated the entire Left and most of the Center, and a good many women on the Right will ultimately doom them in the big picture, but meanwhile, I shudder to see the kind of things that bob to the surface across the country when you stir up that kind of mud.
Post a Comment