Six Months and a Week To Go ...

May – June – July – August – September -- October plus a week into November: OMG, what an effing bore this is going to be. Some 134 million of us will vote (unless the tedium simply drives us underground until it’s all over) but I dare say 132 million of us already know who we’ll vote for. So to sway some 2 million wishy-washies, more politely called swing voters, PACs, wealthy individuals and true-believers will spend a couple of billion dollars. That’s 1,000 bucks a head! What relief it would be if they could simply gave them ten C-notes each and save the rest of us from all the flak. Well if the presidential race bores, what of Congress? For political junkies like I, watching Congress over the next six months will be excruciating – watch grown men and women act like teen-agers doing everything possible to avoid cleaning up their rooms. Congressional and Senatorial races here and there may prove interesting. But again, millions will be dumped into those districts by outside interests trying to tell constituents how to think and vote. Don’t constituents have a right to be insulated from meddlesome outsiders, a right to think in peace and make thoughtful decisions? Wouldn’t it be great if we could limit political contributions to constituents only? But that has as much chance of passing Constitutional muster as getting corporations ruled non-persons. This bastardization of representative government is what we call our “democracy.” There's got to be a better way.