It's a simple processor, based on my experience and what I've watched government become.
There are, of course, two major parties. They each stand for something, based on their branding, messaging and advertising.
That's what their candidates tell us, anyway. And that's the perception of a great many of the voting public.
Having been buried deep inside this process... having made my living off politics or politically related positions for the past 23 years... and having been politically active for the past 29, you learn a lot along the way.
Many of the lessons have been painful. And oddly, most of them have been a caricature of politics as it's presented in generalities.
I started out with a PoliSci degree and nothing else. I thought I had it all figured out.
Man, was *I* wrong.
The stereotype of a teenage boy when it comes to girls ... a tried and true history to be sure... is that they will say and frequently do... anything to get a girl out of her clothes.
It's not about love, of course. It's about sex.
The girls, at some level, know that. They need to be lied to for the boy to get what he wants, so they're lied to. But the emotions and hormones are sooooo strong that they are usually ignored... and we all know the typical outcome.
Politics is a lot like that... in so many ways.
Just replace the words "teenage boy" with the word "politician"... and the words "teenage girl" with the word "voter".
We all know that. It's portrayed that way in the movies and TV... and has been for decades.
I know it when I see it.
And I object.
There's a book-learnin' aspect to this: the thing I first learned after I finished my degree and got out of the military is that the entirety of what we're taught these days about politics and about government is by no means factual. It is all... in its entirety... theoretical.
That is, the book-learnin' presents how it's SUPPOSED to be.
But real life presents how it is. And how it is?
Is nothing like the books.
Oh, the schematics were accurate, as far as they go. There are 3 branches of government. They're the Executive, Legislative and Judicial and so on and so on.
But what goes on with the PEOPLE that make up the schematic, that's another thing entirely.
I'm reminded of one of the sayings on my blog:
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Dr. Martin Luther King
Indeed.
There are, of course, two major parties. They each stand for something, based on their branding, messaging and advertising.
That's what their candidates tell us, anyway. And that's the perception of a great many of the voting public.
Having been buried deep inside this process... having made my living off politics or politically related positions for the past 23 years... and having been politically active for the past 29, you learn a lot along the way.
Many of the lessons have been painful. And oddly, most of them have been a caricature of politics as it's presented in generalities.
I started out with a PoliSci degree and nothing else. I thought I had it all figured out.
Man, was *I* wrong.
The stereotype of a teenage boy when it comes to girls ... a tried and true history to be sure... is that they will say and frequently do... anything to get a girl out of her clothes.
It's not about love, of course. It's about sex.
The girls, at some level, know that. They need to be lied to for the boy to get what he wants, so they're lied to. But the emotions and hormones are sooooo strong that they are usually ignored... and we all know the typical outcome.
Politics is a lot like that... in so many ways.
Just replace the words "teenage boy" with the word "politician"... and the words "teenage girl" with the word "voter".
We all know that. It's portrayed that way in the movies and TV... and has been for decades.
I know it when I see it.
And I object.
There's a book-learnin' aspect to this: the thing I first learned after I finished my degree and got out of the military is that the entirety of what we're taught these days about politics and about government is by no means factual. It is all... in its entirety... theoretical.
That is, the book-learnin' presents how it's SUPPOSED to be.
But real life presents how it is. And how it is?
Is nothing like the books.
Oh, the schematics were accurate, as far as they go. There are 3 branches of government. They're the Executive, Legislative and Judicial and so on and so on.
But what goes on with the PEOPLE that make up the schematic, that's another thing entirely.
I'm reminded of one of the sayings on my blog:
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Dr. Martin Luther King
Indeed.
My voice isn't for the left or the right. Some have a hard time understanding that, to be sure.
Others, seeking to silence me; or at least minimally, discredit me with claims that I am some sort of mercenary, getting paid to write what I write; attack and vilify me, even going so far as to dig up and threaten me using information about both me and my wife, which, to put it mildly, would violate the Privacy Act (Social Security numbers and the like).
I speak my mind on a variety of issues concerning the political realm. I call people out who we have hired to govern us and represent us in government... who, if they were employed by anyone reading this, would immediately be fired for what they've done and are doing.
These politicians count on a short attention span. They count on us "forgetting," or, in the case of the RINO CCGOP chairs who endorsed my brother-in-law, Marc Boldt, for county chair in 2015, they specifically asked us to actually ignore his voting record as a commissioner and elect the Young Democrat-endorsed Boldt anyway, because of their hatred of conservatives:
Brent Boger
Ann Donnelly
Ron Rasmussen, Sr.
Mike Gaston
Margie Ferris
I don't ignore voting records. I don't ignore the pledges made by candidates and incumbents. I don't ignore when someone who claims GOP allegiance gets endorsed by the furthest possible leftist political group in Clark County AND five GOP chairs who blinded themselves to help us get the leftist Chair we have now... with 39% of the vote.
The GOP is supposed to stand for something. If it doesn't, then it will fall for anything, as it did when it elected many of those we have in charge of us now.
I freely admit I voted for many democrats in the last election, because I had to ask myself the question:
Is it better to have an honest democrat in office that you oppose?
Or to reward a lying, dishonest Republican that you despise when the only thing separating the two is the letter after their name?
That's an easy choice for me.
None of the Republicans I oppose, for example, ran on a platform of foisting stratospheric tax increases on us. In fact, some ran on just the opposite:
"The people have spoken and have listened."
$700 million later, it looks like there's a difference between "listening," and "hearing."
I wish I didn't have to write about this sort of thing: after all, one of the reasons we have a political party organization is for THEM to hold people like Rivers accountable for their actions and votes and to further the tenets of Republicanism as an alternative to the more expensive, bigger, more heavily taxed, less focused on freedom message of the democrats.
Sadly, the local GOP does not hold our candidates or elected accountable for what they do.
They have no apparent difficulty at all with a sitting state senator, claiming to be a Republican, working for a large democrat campaign organization here locally... for a substantial check... while that same senator is simultaneously "negotiating" with the democrats the addition of $5.5 billion to our budget to give a massive pay raise, without any additional accountability or achievement measures, to the teacher's union... a union so grateful, they felt compelled to congratulate this same senator for her betrayal of her district and the people of this state.
So, the question for me is clear:
Do I just let all of this sort of thing go?
Do I use my platform, such as it is, to remind those politically active enough to read my meager effort here?
Do I use it to irritate the powers that be?
Clearly, many of those in "power" dislike BEING irritated. But from MY perspective, if they were doing their job, I wouldn't have to do any of this, would I?
I wouldn't be threatened by them... I wouldn't be vilified by them... I wouldn't even be noticed by them.
When I am alarmed by what I see, I ring the bell and bang the garbage can lid. When I see dishonesty, I intend to speak to it. I bring it up to remind those of understandably short attention span
The main difference between myself and most anyone else reading this is that while many may think or speak to what I write about here... I actually put it in writing for all to read.
And, of course, for those who are opposed to what I have to say, they can feel free to either ignore my tiny effort... or respond to it in ways that make a case.
That's up to the reader. But I'm not going anywhere.
That's the filter. That's how it works.
Thanks for stopping by.
Cross posted on Clark County Politics.
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