I'm with you Kay.  My ex-husband and I were talking about the election this morning.  We are both northerners who voluntarily migrated to the south for a great opportunity 14 years ago.  We have become used to the warm winters and hot summers here, and have no wish to go back to parkas, snow tires, and shovels.  But this place is so divided racially - white suburbs, black city.  The civil war was last week.  We don't value education.  We don't take care of kids.  We don't take care of our city.  Much of our economy depends on tourism - Elvis, Beale Street.  And yet, walking down the pedestrian-only main mile of Main street the first thing tourists and residents are greeted with is the smell of feces and urine - not all of it from the horses that pull the tourist-focused carriages.  Most of it comes from the homeless and other beggers that frequent the mile that many tourists come to see while they are here for Elvis or Blues.  The city government and the downtown district merchant's association point fingers at each other about just whose responsibility it is to clean up the stench.  There's no winning.

Although we were lucky enough to reelect a terrific congressman, we dumped a decent democratic governor in favor of the guy who wants to do alway with all forms of gun registration.  As if guns aren't a large factor in our awful crime rate here.

We've become disenchanted by Memphis, and now, thanks to the tea baggers (as a life-long tea drinker I SO hate that name), we are becoming disenchanted by the entire ignorant, fearful, racist, easily-swayed "red" people.  8 years of Bush and his disasterous handling of the economy, his unnecessary wars, and general giving-things-to-his-rich-friends attitudes and policies set the stage for Obama, if not to fail in his promises, at least to have great difficulty in solving the monumental problems that took 8 years to come to a boil.  So the stupid, who sadly are most affected by a shit economy, figure that since life isn't rosy yet that they should throw the liberal bums out.  Short-sighted.  Opposite to their own best interests.  Fox News die-hards.  Ignorance isn't bliss.  It is suicide.

My ex and I have a friend in Toronto.  She tells us much about the attitude of the people, and the government.  High taxes, yes, but a much more civilized and caring environment.  But  it's COLD up there!  We just can't see us buying parkas and shovels at this time in our lives.  So like you, Kay, we've decided that maybe all these years of being news-hounds has added up to zip.  On the other hand, the republicans don't have any good ideas for how to fix what ails us, so maybe 2 years from now the worm will turn, and large groups of idiots will will see the light.  I can dream, can't I?

Jen said:

I think there should be no such thing as careeer politicians or political parties. Government should be by the citizens. There should be not only strict term limits but also limits on the number of political offices any one person can hold. Career politicans almost never care about what's best for their constituents. They are all more interested in what's best for them and/or their own party. I think we should chuck them all out and start fresh.

 

Did I mention I hate politics? [Image Can Not Be Found]

Jen, I've always hated the idea of legislated term limits.  I think that I've always had the power of term limits - in the voting booth.  If I don't like a politician I can always vote against him/her.  Term limits take my power away. We've all known of excellent politicians who either at the local, state, or national level, do their jobs well, with the good of the people in mind.  These are people I want to retain in office.  Think Ted Kennedy, for a start.

Too, it takes a while after getting to Washington, for example, for new legislators to figure out just how to do the job they've been elected to do.  I wouldn't want a boatload of greenhorns every 2/4/6 years.  Experience can be a good thing.

What ARE broken, and what needs to be fixed, are the campaign finance and lobbying systems.  They pervert the concept of "of the people".  Our campaign schedule is out of whack too.  A 2-year long campaign for a 2-year office?  Nuts.  The job of a congressman becomes getting elected, not working for the people after election.  I think some other countries do this stuff much better than we do.  We  could take a cue.

kaythomas said:

I may have offended some of you by posting this. 

You thought we'd be offended?  Here?  At TAP?  You did open a can of liberal worms, though.  I like worms, especially the left-leaning ones.

"Fuck you back, Finkybaby [Image Can Not Be Found] with a cherry on top!"

You tease and tease but never fly out for a visit! Size may not matter but I approve your buxom floppinousity. [Image Can Not Be Found]

 "Indepedent and small-party candidates never even have half a chance."

Took a day after the election here in Maine before the governor was called. Dem took took enough votes away from the independent (my vote) and we ended up with a Tea Party backed whack-a-doodle. No Christine O'Donnell, the guy's not an idiot, but it still stinks. It was close.

Broadly speaking I'm an old-fashioned liberal (I wanted Bradley over Clinton; sadly that type of liberal candidate is long gone from the national stage--I've been amused by liberals being pissed at Obama, who never was one and didn't run as one) but I vote without regard to party and have voted for many Republicans and I kinda like the US system. Might get me lynched but I support the electoral college, opaque and weird and seemingly archaic as it is. By extension, I mostly like the de facto two party system it forces in the US. That's not to say there aren't zillions of problems but I'll take it over Italy cobbling together alliances that crap out every two months. The US is a republic, not a direct democracy. Checks & balances and all that.

I voted, with a heavy heart, against a city proposal to allow legal non-citizens to get voting in local elections. That the expensive and slow process of becoming a citizen needs to be changed doesn't change that voting is the core of being a citizen. I'm an absolutist on few things but that's one of them.

At least in US third party candidates or the most liberal extant on the Dem side are often bugfuck insane. cough Kucinich cough. Cabinet level Department of Peace indeed. The dial keeps shifting right, which I hate, but I suppose I'm conservative (small cee) at heart: I like hard-nosed moderates of old with a liberal slant. Again, a dead breed. [Image Can Not Be Found] Gimme a Lyndon Johnson. Without the secret bombing.

Finkbug said:

At least in US third party candidates or the most liberal extant on the Dem side are often bugfuck insane. cough Kucinich cough. 

Hey!  I lived in Ohio for 26 years, and although I didn't live near Cleveland, I always kinda liked Kuchinich.  A bit wacky, sure...there was that UFO thing.  But he has always seemed to vote his conscience without regard to what is popular.  I liked the fact that he voted against the Patriot Act and other rights-limiting insanities.  He voted against invading Iraq.  Lots of his other positions jive with mine.  While he took flak for some of his seemingly bone-headed positions early in his career, he has been vindicated on many of them.  I even voted for him in the presidential primary of 2008.  I knew he had no choice of winning, but it was my way of saying I wanted to hear/see something different from the candidates.

I had already cut back on watching politics and will probably watch even less with all the craziness going on. Glad I live in California, where they had the sense to elect Jerry Brown and Barbara Boxer over the CEOs, but also sad that the state has been broken with the initiative process. It makes it even harder for a governor to do anything to fix the state. The worst is the required 2/3 vote to raise taxes. Prop 13 (property tax) started the downward slide.

Steerpike, anyone can put an initiative on the ballot with enough signatures on a petition. This year some oil companies tried to remove our environmental regulations by a sneaky maneuver.

Hard to believe that Rand Paul was elected. At least we avoided a few of the craziest ones.