Politics

I love presidential politics. It's like a spectator sport.

Will Dean get the votes? Will the hyped I Have A Scream speech be the equivalent of Edmund Muskie's tears? Will Kerry catch fire and find a way to inspire? What's wrong with Clark? Why isn't he attracting votes? Lieberman truly seems to be a Man of Faith, huh?

And so much more to come! The conventions! The choice of running mate! Debates!

I heard an NPR listener complain that the elections are being covered like a horse race. What about the issues? How come we never hear about the issues? What's with all this soundbite coverage?

Soooo missing the point. It's being covered by a horse race, because it is a horse race. Sound and fury, signifying nothing. That's politics. Ultimately, it doesn't matter who's elected. For the vast majority of Americans, not a lot will change either way. Government, from the Whitehouse down to the Plumstead Township Board of Supervisors, is a big machine. And it goes on no matter whose name happens to be on the door of the biggest office. It's a large, chaotic system, and thus change is slow and cannot be brought about by any single change.

George W. Bush is probably the most politically radical man ever to make it into the Oval Office. Going to war in Iraq is turning out to be a huge misstep, but that, too, shall pass. Time and time again, some new proposal (the War on Poverty, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Ending Welfare As We Know It) is greeted by the Right or the Left as the end of everything. Disaster, surely, will follow. But, of course, it doesn't.

So sit back and enjoy.

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