Political Pandering Falls Flat

Clearly this week was a little quiet for me—my apologies for not weighing in on the hot topics of the day. I simply haven’t had the energy to form any unique or even any coherent opinions. While I’m sure this lack of motivation is somewhat due to events in my own life, I also think the recent news has been overly dictated by the crude political posturing of our leaders.

For awhile we had immigration, which is an important topic. But then the political “geniuses” decided to kick off the election year with the usual and increasingly stupid “play-to-the base” issues. First they tossed us the ever-unimportant issues of gay marriage and flag burning—pointless pandering made all the more meaningless in the face of al-Zarqawi’s death, an event that reminded everyone that there is a very real war going on with stakes much higher than any election-year wedge issue.

Of course, instead of a useful and thoughtful debate on Iraq, what we got was more pandering, this time by Senate and House Democrats. A majority of the Democratic party apparently supports establishing withdrawal plans (the sooner the better), as if the issue is whether we should stay in Iraq. Of course we should stay. Anything less would be an unforgivable abandonment. But these Democrats have no interest in debating what strategies would better help us secure the peace. They seek only to appease the irrational members of their leftwing who demand withdrawal for reasons attributable to motivations I’ve never fully understood.

All this vacant political maneuverings is what you expect in an election year. But I don’t think it’s going to work this time around. The issues I mentioned were covered robustly by the media but failed to gain traction. I’ve always said the American people are smarter than what the politicians give us credit for—and perhaps this is the year when a majority of us demand our leaders address more substantive issues.

Or perhaps the political geniuses will just develop new wedge issues with which to distract the electorate.

I don’t know. But I do know that at least here in Texas we are guaranteed an interesting election. Kinky Freidman received enough signatures and is now on the ballot as an independent candidate for governor. He’s also polling second only to incumbent Rick Perry. It should be a great race and one that breaks free of the typical Democrat/Republican vapidity.