If I remember correctly, September 7, 1941 was the day of infamy President Roosevelt marked the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Air force. The dysfunction of the American Armed forces in Hawaii where the Army wasn’t speaking to the Navy and the ships were lined up in a perfect killing ground for the Japanese attack planes was as great or greater than the way we are conducting Democracy’s quadrennial selection of leadership of the nation’s political apparatus.
In reading the NYTimes this morning all I can discover is that no one is accurate about the vetting of Sarah Palin and no one has all the facts straight about her foibles as a gun-toting, mother of a pregnant teenager and a politician who has at home a new-born downs syndrome baby. And, we are not even beginning to note the deficiencies and flip-flopping of John McCain who pulled Palin out of obscurity to make her the next president after he dies of an embolism or other ailment of age.
Dysfunction, thy name is American politics and American knowledge about the rights of citizens in a democracy to raise individuals over them in whom they trust their future – they act like the recalcitrant who refuses to grow up and take responsibility over his own actions. Say, who you gonna vote for? My suspicions lead me to believe that here in Florida, Blacks will vote for Obama, Hispanics will vote for Mc Cain and Jews will vote for Jewish names of judges and other lower officials. We pay so little attention to political realities because we are besotted with the love stories of our entertainers (they get married and have children like others go into stores to buy spontaneously without much thought). We are in love with celebrity and wishfully think how wonderful if we had their money and opportunities (apart from talent and lucky chances being in the right place at the right time).
What has been lost with all the preoccupation with the delight of a lot of people who just don’t care much about anything other than their comfort, is the fact that the next elected President will have the power to nominate our judges and have a powerful senate filibuster-free majority put them into power over us. The election is about putting into power powerful people just because they hold the office given them by feckless voters.
Will the voters go into the voting booth and actually know the histories, strengths and weaknesses of the people they will cast their votes for? They will ask a friend, or possible the person who just came out of the booth before them, “Who did you vote for? Some will not participate and that will be a shame. It will be a shame for it takes only one more than 50% to get someone elected. Maybe you should vote your party. Do you have one?