My Sunday Feeling

I have told this story before. I once worked for a Judge who told me that about all he knew about politics was that it was always a bad idea to vote for anybody that is running on a platform of honesty and integrity. I have adopted Judge Ginger's maxim as my own although I have tweaked it a bit. Not only do I not vote for anybody that runs on such a platform, I also refuse to vote for anybody who campaigns on a platform of "restoring traditional values" or somesuch malarkey.

And guess what? I got outvoted bigtime last Tuesday.

Our new Lt. Governor-elect claims that God told him to run. Our new Secretary of State-elect is opposed to health care reform. Not that he can do the first damn thing about it. The Congressman-elect in the 1st District is a former rodeo clown who has been in a bankruptcy.

None of these guys could have gotten elected Town Drunk two years ago. And they won their elections with platforms of utter hooey about values and being against Obama and little else. So. What the hell happened?

I am no political scientist. But I think President Obama and the Democrats did an exceptionally lousy job of getting out their message for one thing. While the Tea Party started to rage Obama was all tied up over that stupid controversy with Skip Gates and the police officer. A controversy largely started by his popping off at a press conference.

Secondly, he continued to stay curiously above the fray as all hell was busting out in the electorate. As one writer has said, nobody gets credit for avoiding the plane crash. But the White House sure did a lousy job of explaining to the American people how it a) saved the automotive industry, b) prevented a world wide economic catastrophe that may have resulted in a depression and c) created health care reforms that will benefit all Americans. Not to mention troop reductions in Iraq just as he promised while maintaining robust if largely clandestine military activity against the Taliban and its sympathizers. There is a lot of stuff here to work with.

But they let their message get co-opted. It was like the Obama Administration refused to believe that the American people could possibly drink the snake oil that was being passed out.

Well they did. And truth be told, if the unemployment numbers were lower there might not have been so many Democrats defenestrated. But things were so bad for them all most Rs had to do was run against Obama and Pelosi in order to win an election. And all this occurred while Obama's approval ratings are still pretty high. For a guy who just got hit in the head that is.

And so We the People have handed the keys to a group of folks who ran against the government. And now they ARE the government. Which means they will have to, like, govern. Which is nowhere near as easy as calling people names on the campaign trail. The next two years will be interesting.

But just when I am beginning to think that madness has completely swept the land I only need to look close to home to see the body politic act in a manner that revives my flagging spirits.

Clark and Boone Counties here in Arkansas went "wet."

Maybe there is still hope for reason to yet prevail. But until then, I'm going back to writing about sports all of the time. I understand what happens in that world.