Polling for the next President of the United States has turned into the current habit of political pundits to avoid the present. On countless websites (and counting), both conservative and liberal, advertisements and petitions are asking for our thoughts about who will be the next Democratic or Republican contenders. One attack ad has tied New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to Texas Governor Rick Perry as anti-choice and anti-woman.
How many polls have I peered into which attempt to predict the next Presidential match-up, is just appalling, not to mention unappealing. Why would anyone spend so much time wondering who the next President will be when the current President is doing all sorts of things, many of which are apparently not apparent, and certainly creating more uncertainty?
Frankly, I am all mixed-up about the whole thing, that people are pondering the future when they should be pounding the President presently. The federal government cannot implement its own health care mandate, and by executive order President Obama is backing away piecemeal from his terrible, horrible, no-good, very-bad law. He has waffled on gay marriage, and gaily he signs executive orders on gun control while refusing to enforce our nation’s immigration laws.
Nevertheless, the hard-wiring of human beings requires news of the next flair, a new phase has drifted into our electoral process. People get bored all to easily, now more so because of Facebook, Netflix, Twitter, Flickr, this and that and then some.
Whatever happened to “I want my MTV?”
So, who will be the next presidential candidates in 2016? Will it be Christie vs. Hillary?
Who cares? (I cannot afford to spend any more time on this)
All of this advanced polling is polarizing in its peculiar pettiness. Who knows who will run in 2016? How about asking: “Who’s running the country now?” How do you feel about what they are doing? Do you know who your US Senators are (you have two of them.) What about your congressman? Believe me, my Congressman is Henry Waxman, and he knows that I have problems with him (so much so, that he never lets me share them with him in public). For that matter, he never lets anyone question or challenge him. Must be worried about something. . .
(Visit “Waxman Watch” waxmanwatch.blogspot.com to find out why)
But really: why are people all put out about the next Presidential election?
Democrats want to get rid of Abominable Obama as fast as they can. He has become the George W. Bush of the Democratic Party, ruining the liberal brand, and liberalism in general, by exposing how state-sponsored everything means nothing but bad for the individual, for the local leaders, and for anyone who cares about their civil liberties.
Instead of looking into the political process of the future, voters, pundits, and activists need to look at today, pay attention to their current leaders in their city halls and local school boards. All of this obsession with federal races has caused voters to neglect the greater good that our local leaders can do, and the greater damage they get away with.
How many city council members have opted to raise taxes instead of cut spending? How many residents have yelled at their city leaders for pandering to city employee unions instead of representing the best interests of the city?
Bell, California should serve as the warning for a sleepy, do-nothing, don’t-care voting electorate. Robert Rizzo ran through city coffers like aqua-vitae with a midwife – really fast, and enjoying every minute of it. “Pigs get fat. Hogs get slaughter”, Rizzo snidely warned his conspiring city council colleagues, all but one of whom was ranking in six figure salaries while the city was going bankrupt, while the police were seizing vehicles for the easy cash, while residents wondered what happened to their basic services.
When the LA Times demanded that city leaders come forward with their pay, and Rizzo acknowledged that he had been taking (or rather raking in) $800,000 a year, he abruptly resigned. Two days, weeks, not even months later, and low-and-behold, he was stealing with red hands from city coffers, all with the help of colluding councils and a deluded electorate.
Then I look at Downey, California (a city with an all Republican city council). No two cities so close together could be so different. A golf course thrives next to the Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. Friends of mine who live in Lynwood love Downey. “Don’t get me started!” when I started talking about the fun in Downey. “Oh, please get started”, my friend replied. Aerospace, green space, space to breathe; safe streets, public facilities facilely serving the public. Gotta love limited government and local control.
Stop pandering to polls, stop pondering the future President. Pay attention to the present, and look at the local leaders in your locale. People need to pay attention to politics, and all politics (that counts) is local. What happens in Washington does not often stay there, but what happens in your backyard stays with you, whether you like it or not, and you can do something about it.