America - Addicted To Elections

Ideas can be pesky things. Once they start buzzing around inside your head, they refuse to pipe down, unless and until you give them an outlet. And the only outlet I have is this poor little blog and you - The hapless victim of my assault. So here goes nothing...

Granted, the 2000 election was something of a nightmare, with recounts and lawyers and the Supreme Court and chads and what not. It generated an intense amount of emotion, and got involved a lot of people into politics, who were otherwise quite happy to go about their life, and think about politics only when it was time to vote. Also granted that President Bush stoked the partisan fires some more by starting the Iraq war, which got even more previously uninterested people involved. And since 2004 wasn't far behind, it was basically a referundum on the war. So, ok I'll grant you that too.

This is where the real problem pokes it's head out. Once we had the 2004 elections out of the way, people should have been able to get back to their normal lives. Instead what happens? The campaign for 2006 begins. We all know how it turned out. Barely have the tremors subsided, and now it's all about 2008. It's supposed to be an earth shattering event, and if don't give up everything we do and focus on electing the right person, the world could come to an end. I'm absolutely convinced that the day the 2008 elections are over, it'll be on to the next one, with similar expectations and required contributions.

Stop! Enough already. Elections are meant to elect politicians so they can do their job until the next elections. Not so they can begin running for the next round. Every issue, every debate, every decision is colored by the fact of impending elections and what position would go down the best among core constituencies. This is not the way it works. The way it works is, you elect someone, let them do their job, and if you don't like the end result, you throw them out - After they get a chance to do it their way.

What's happening now is that nothing gets done, because every politician is campaigning to get elected 365 days a year. Whatever pretense of work they do, is dictated by what will help them to get elected again. Question is, why is this happening? The culprit is the MSM. Got nothing to write about? No scandals, no human interest stories, no runway brides, nothing - So, let's start beating up on whoever happens to next in line to get elected - Even if said election is a couple of years away. What they managed to do, in effect, is get Americans addicted to elections, not politics - Which is a big difference. Addiction to politics and policy, while not entirely healthy, is still commendable. But addiction to elections? That is, simply put, bad - Bad for the people, bad for the country, bad for the politicians and good for the media. Go figure.