Election Time

International Man ^ | October 15, 2012 | Jeff Thomas

[arthurus]

"Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office." - David Broder

"If voting could actually change anything, it would be illegal." - Noam Chomsky

Generally, I tend not to comment on elections, as I consider them to be largely unimportant. That is, regardless of which candidate is elected, the actual outcome tends to be much the same. In most countries, the higher the office being contested, the less real difference there is between the candidates.

First, unlike, say, a beauty pageant, in which the voter may have up to fifty contestants to choose from (as in the US), the governments of the world do all that is in their power to limit the choices to two contestants. Second, the more sophisticated the electoral system, the more likely it is that the two candidates are quite similar in both their level of ability and their apparent sincerity...

[frogjerk]

Generally, I tend not to comment on elections, as I consider them to be largely unimportant. That is, regardless of which candidate is elected, the actual outcome tends to be much the same.

This is a very dumb opinion. Almost as dumb as Noam Chomsky's. So the election of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln was largely unimportant and the outcome was the same?

In our own times the election of Ronald Reagan was unimportant and the outcome would have been the same as Jimmy Carter?

This is so pathetically stupid.

[arthurus]

"Tends to be" I think is the operative phrase. Think of the folks who thought they were electing a conservative Nixon or even Bush. Republicans grow the government the same as Democrats do. A Reagan or a Washington happens rather less than than once a century, alas. I have no expectation that Romney will shrink the government any more than Obama would. Romney will grow the government with a compliant Congress. Obama will likely get some resistance but will be more ambitious. The truth now is that the president that is elected in November will have total power. That has been granted-by-inaction by the Congress that has made no protest against the totalitarian EOs that the kenyan has promulgated and will be confirmed once one more national election has occurred with those EOs in place.

Given that the President has, in fact, used some of those EOs to write law and veto or amend laws already enacted without opposition from Congress or the USSC. And Congress- our Tea Party Congress no less, has granted(NDAA) the President the power to disappear anyone any time without notice or warrant. That is about as heavy a change toward total power as there is. In short, it does not matter now who is president. Even a conservative(though not Washington or Reagan) will find it "necessary" to use them to get things done that we all would like to see done but the use of that power is far more important than what that use would seem to accomplish.