Monday, January 14, 2008

Withdrawal symptoms: irritability, apathy, drowsiness

Mi Hermana has been telling me funny stories about the massive voter education effort in Michigan to let folks know if they want to vote for anyone but Clinton, Dodd, Gavel, and Kucinich, they have to mark the box "Uncommitted." Writing in any candidate's name will result in their vote being disqualified.

Sounds like chaos. And it's a really messed up process. I'm in one of my moods where I really hate the party system and structure. I still don't fully identify with the Democratic party, although I root for it, vote for it, campaign for it, give it money, and have attended its celebrations, caucuses, and fundraisers. I love party primaries because they're like little family gossip sessions ... or maybe high school homecoming court is a more appropriate analogy. But as I vented to Xtina earlier this evening (when we failed to realize that the trivia event we chose was in a pub with two separate halves and that naturally we plunked ourselves down in the wrong half and waited in vain for over an hour for the trivia to start), sometimes it all reeks of a sham, and that primaries are essentially just the two major political parties being "nice" enough to let the populace have a say in who they select to run for national office. In theory it could be done in secret, like choosing a new Pope, and announced with white smoke days before the general election.

What would be great is if we could have public and limited campaign financing, no electoral college, and several viable parties with seats in Congress. But no. Noooo....

Maybe I'm just in a crabby mood because the Washington State Legislature convened today, and its the first session in six years that I haven't spent months prepping for and months slaving over. I miss it! It's like an opium high (I ... imagine...) It's like there's a void in my brain that only food deprivation, a caffeine IV, and 300 bills dropped on Day 1 can fill...

At any rate, none of Mi Hermana's stories about voters calling in to the local Michigan radio stations with questions and rants could trump the post on Daily Kos this morning:
Michigan "wingnut" files complaint of voter fraud
It's hilarious.

And now I'll go off to crawl under the covers and read my boring Regulatory Economics textbook....

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