WHAT FOOLS THESE MORTALS BE
I read The Nation every week and usually find it informative and agreeable. In the current issue (Jan 3) I ran across a bit that I assumed was a joke so I read on, expecting a punch line. Finding none, I reread the paragraph, hoping to find I'd missread the joke. I hadn't. The author urged, nay, demanded that Obama “move in the direction” of The American Dream Act, an omnibus bill the Progressive Caucus created. It is every thing us progressives could hope for and, of course, has absolutely no chance in hell of passing either house. I doubt it could pass even if Democrats gained control of both the House and Senate.
Switching from that, I prowled through stories about America Elect. It has just gotten on the ballot in California, and a bunch of other states. Its boss insists it is not a political party, but that's how it is described in all of the states where it will be on the ballot in 2012. Their idea seems simple enough: people vote on-line to pick a candidate, who must then pick a vice presidential running mate from the other party. So voters would end up with what. Obama and Gingrich? Or Ron Paul and Michelle Backhmann? Don't those dummies know that the vice presidency is a pot of warn piss, as Vice President John Nance Gardner put it. His (or one day, her) only constitutionally assigned job is to serve as titular president of the Senate. The President tells his veep what else he can do, or can not do. Period.
The bigger question, however, is not why America Elect is so stupid, but who put up the millions it has cost them to pay for all the signatures that got them on those ballots. Do the backers of this bizarre movement have a Koch addiction? AE won't get anybody elected but it has the potential of drawing some independents from Obama, and even some semi-smart Democrats who are weary of the two party system. My guess is that that's what its financial backers had in mind now that there's no Ralph Nader to screw things up.
No comments:
Post a Comment