This just depresses the living hell out of me. If I don't return from England, this will be why.
Many of my friends think I'm too reactionary about the GOP and the president. I look at this, and see a war-mongering simpleton who's only real constraint thus far has been the resistence he gets from the Senate. Now we have a senate that will be more likely (I feel) to give him all the go-ahead he wants. The worst part will be the committee changes. They'll have the chance to take back things like the Judicial Oversight committee. We'll see all the far-right judicial candidates now, and I expect most of them will get their appointments. Don't expect to see anything more than a slap on the hands to the happy-go-lucky campers at Enron and WorldCom. They might not have gotten more than that anyway, but the chances of real recriminations are even lower, now.
As are my hopes for the short-term future.
]]>This just depresses the living hell out of me. If I don't return from England, this will be why.
Many of my friends think I'm too reactionary about the GOP and the president. I look at this, and see a war-mongering simpleton who's only real constraint thus far has been the resistence he gets from the Senate. Now we have a senate that will be more likely (I feel) to give him all the go-ahead he wants. The worst part will be the committee changes. They'll have the chance to take back things like the Judicial Oversight committee. We'll see all the far-right judicial candidates now, and I expect most of them will get their appointments. Don't expect to see anything more than a slap on the hands to the happy-go-lucky campers at Enron and WorldCom. They might not have gotten more than that anyway, but the chances of real recriminations are even lower, now.
As are my hopes for the short-term future.
]]>I think my voter apathy can be traced back to the 1976 campaign year. I was 8 years old, and I and my 6-year-old brother had talked our parents into letting us stay up to watch one of those "nature gone horriby wrong" horror films, one about giant rabbits (whose title I can't remember). I remember it was on pretty late, so it must not have been a school night (and ergo not the actual election day that year). Anyway, something political pre-empted our movie feature. We tried our damnedest to stay awake, hoping that the movie would still show. We fell asleep in front of the TV. Some aspect of politics was more important than our movie about giant rabbits terrorizing the countryside.
I obviously still have issues with this.
So, I didn't vote after all, despite telling several people that I would. If the issues I considered important don't pass, I'll have to accept that I didn't do my part. I couldn't motivate myself to vote for Gray Davis as our governor, even though I sincerely believe Bill Simon would be much worse. And none of the third-party candidates have enough clues between them to start a fire, much less run California. Oh well. I suppose I'll go check CNN and see what I've missed so far.
]]>I think my voter apathy can be traced back to the 1976 campaign year. I was 8 years old, and I and my 6-year-old brother had talked our parents into letting us stay up to watch one of those "nature gone horriby wrong" horror films, one about giant rabbits (whose title I can't remember). I remember it was on pretty late, so it must not have been a school night (and ergo not the actual election day that year). Anyway, something political pre-empted our movie feature. We tried our damnedest to stay awake, hoping that the movie would still show. We fell asleep in front of the TV. Some aspect of politics was more important than our movie about giant rabbits terrorizing the countryside.
I obviously still have issues with this.
So, I didn't vote after all, despite telling several people that I would. If the issues I considered important don't pass, I'll have to accept that I didn't do my part. I couldn't motivate myself to vote for Gray Davis as our governor, even though I sincerely believe Bill Simon would be much worse. And none of the third-party candidates have enough clues between them to start a fire, much less run California. Oh well. I suppose I'll go check CNN and see what I've missed so far.
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