Campaigning. The Games of Fortunes
Roll the dice. Shuffle the cards. Court a gambler’s luck.
The starting gun has blazed.
Time to shut up or put up.
We know who you are, Lady. Data collection has a purpose.
(1922″FamousPlayer-Lasky/USPD:pub date/Commons.wikimedia.org)
Mailboxes over-stuffed with glossy pages with ink so fresh it might rub off.
Shouting for attention like carnies along the midway.
Unease growing.
Cards on the table.
Decision time.
The political campaigns are swamping us.
Swamp is the word: Smelly, stinky, sly.
Determined to pulling anyone – everything – down into the slime.
A couple of slick-looking players. Anything up those sleeves? Between those ears?
(“Maverick”1957.Warner Bro/USPD:pub.date/Commons.wikimedia.org)
Shuffling among the promises, the half-truths, the carefully constructed images.
Sorting reality and track records from sound bytes and mirages.
Confidence and hopes waning.
Odd. I know.
Those emotional generalities, gushing celebrities, and shiny campaign freebies should be enough to sway any voter, right?
Simply fold ’em and toss the cards? Relinquish the vote along party lines?
Easy way out for both sides.
Those in the know will do what’s best. (Don’t worry your uninformed little head…)
Hand over your vote – and your money.
Better to choose your life, instead of letting it choose you.
FIne funny fools indeed. (Keep them moving. Distractions obscure.)
(1899.Strobridge Litho.Co/LOC/USPD:pub.date/Commons.wikimedia.org)
Elections seem to attract so many clowns and characters.
Spin the candidate wheel for belly laughs and snorts.
(Helps with the tears of desperation.)
Some of the local political races are Hee-Haw knee slappers.
Right now my favorite is a Justice of the Peace election with 3 candidates and a ton of money being spent on flyers.
The neighborhood landscape is a quilt of political signs constantly growing in coverage.
She walks. She talks, She smiles. All you need to know!
(1920’s LOC/USPD:pub.date/Commons.wikimedia.org)
The incumbent judge. Wonder how she even got there? No one else ran. (If I’d only known…)
- Paid $60,000 a year for the full-time job, but felt fine with spitting her time between being a judge and the family hardware store. (She snipped that people could always find her there if she was needed in court.)
- Many of her cases involve school truancy. She herself never graduated from High School. Home schools her own kid despite being in one of the top school districts in the state. (How she has the time is anyone’s guess.). Last year she dismissed 86% of charges against parents contributing to truancy. She definitely sounds qualified and focused.
- Endorsed by a marginal Senator and the political precinct captain from an area with one of the largest clusters of sex offenders around. (Oh, that makes me feel comfortable.)
- Best snort-worthy remark? “Yee-haw, I’m finally learning to use email!” Sadly this right after she was elected mayor a few years ago. (You should have seen the one we finally managed to pry out of that office by voting for her. People caught on to quickly and created a City Manager position. She wandered around meetings and greeted people, while he managed all the serious city matters. Dumped her out at the next election.)
- She never mentions her previous elected position in campaign material – for good reason. (People would be grabbing the pitch forks again.)
So the challengers won’t even need Lady Luck on their side to win this JP slot?
- One is a former teacher. She has skills. But there’s a couple of Tea Party people endorsing her – and they, as new city council seats, have caused nothing but trouble, won’t listen to the anyone. And she’s standing right next to them….
- The other challenger? Poker face. There’s nothing. No flyers. No interviews. Invisible except for some signs.(“Better to keep the mouth shut and be thought a fool, than open it and remove all doubt’?) Might be a good strategy.
If the political hat fits. A, B, or C? Pick wisely. One could have explosive possibilities.
(1967.CBS/USPD:pub.date/Commons.wikimedia.org
What’s in the cards for those willing to spend so much for such low-level offices?
Local elections are stepping stones to bigger gigs.
A successful campaign rings of legitimacy and adds to the resume.
Like beauty pageant titles, no matter how small the contest, it’s listing a winning title all that matters.
Best to stop a marginal candidate at the door. No need to gamble with them in the high rollers’ games.
Wish more voters thought that way.
Voting in primaries is important. Cards are being dealt now.
Look who’s managed a seat at the table in the state-wide elections.
(How often do we have to hold our noses and vote for the lesser of the evils?)
Do you really want to know the games being played?
(1900.LOC/USPD:pub.date/Commons.wikimedia.org)
Electing to hold snide remarks on the big stakes elections for later.
Gotta see what trumps what there.
See how the chips stack up.
Gotta stop gagging at the hand being dealt to the voters.
Sure there’s not an Ace under the table?
Phil, the Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge.
Molly is considering running for office. She’s got a tough hide and can stand her ground. She knows how to speak up loudly when necessary. And everyone says she’s pretty. What more is needed?
(1903.Cassius M.Coolidge 1844-1934/USPD:reprod of PD art/pub.date/Commons.wikimedia.org)
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14 Comments
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Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge 
2014 is a huge election YEAR on all levels. The candidates who you described sound like a cross-section of all the people planning to run for some sort of office. 😐 It also amazes me that many people think voting is pointless. While I can understand that to a small extent (because it seems like so many politicians are shady), I don’t understand throwing out the baby with the bath water. As always, good reading you.
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The process is frustrating. Solid honest people often want nothing to do with politics (can’t blame them considering the current nastiness of it all) The major parties”reward”/support people for offices who have worked in past elections, or are related to someone, have access to funds, or fit a certain demographics (and there’s the real possibility none of those could actually be up to the job in experience and knowledge). Sometimes marginal people end up as candidates because no one else runs – or no one votes in the small preliminary/primary elections. The final choices are pretty grim sometimes.
It’s also important to research the candidates (which is also difficult with the clever PR/marketing people)
But people need to try and vote. And then keep on their tails and nag them once they are in office. Only way it can work. Thanks for voting to leave a comment
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I saw a bumper sticker today which said “Limit politicians to two terms – one in office and one in prison.” I think more than a few folks would sign off on that outlook these days. A sad, sorry state of our political process, isn’t it?
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Do they have t shirts, too? (Looking for a magic marker and an old shirt….) Thanks for playing the comment card
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Already? It’s a tedious, thankless process… I don’t look at brochures or how to vote, I do at least a bit of research and make up my own mind.
Last year during our Federal election lead up I was sure I really did not want to vote and support any of the options on offer but to squander that hard won right to vote was unthinkable.
I wasn’t the only one tempted, and quite a few followed through. After the election it was reported… “This election, 5.92% of the total votes cast were informal – the highest proportion for nearly thirty years. 739,872 voters failed to have their ballot for the House of Representatives counted. That’s a very large number of people who lost – or gave up – their opportunity to express a preference about who represents them in federal parliament.”
I’m not happy with the outcome of that election and many of the actions of the government since but I wouldn’t have been happy even if I didn’t vote.
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We have so many elections: city, county, state, federal and there’s the “specially called ones”. This time there’s state constitutional amendments to be approved or not and primaries for state offices. People are so dejected, many just don’t bother to vote. But you have to try…or end up with people that the JP mentioned moving up to higher offices. Annoyed, but don’t dare turn away…besides if You vote, then you feel comfortable contacting whomever gets elected later on to yell about stuff. Thanks for being determined
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(Insert interminable, nearly-incoherent rant here). And besides that… (this, and this, and maybe this.)
Let me put it as nicely as I can. If people don’t stop knee-jerking and allowing themselves to be led around by the nose by candidates whose unspoken agenda is little more than money (for themselves) and power (over us), what’s going on in Venezuela and Ukraine is not unimaginable.
What’s worse than the elected officials are the self-appointed “leaders” whose only mission seems to be gaining money and power by scaring us to death with whatever’s at hand. Political campaigns have turned into “the sky is falling!” campaigns as a result.
And of course, there’s the “Do as I say, and not as I do” crew. Prime example? Mayor DeBlasio of NYC, who started a traffic safety campaign, then happily rode through town blowing stopsigns and exceeding the speed limit by a LOT. When asked about it, he refused to answer questions. Well, New Yorkers believed him and elected him. Enjoy.
My personal favorite for advertising this season is Steve Stockman. Have you seen his signs? Black and white renditions of the Goliad flag. I don’t suppose it would resonate with someone from Michigan or Mexico in quite the same way – and I’m not certain I’ll vote for him – but I’m loving the sign.
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All I can say is ditto. (and how stupid are we to let it come to this?) Thanks for marching along
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“Like beauty pageant titles..” Great analogy. And about as meaningful to the contestants, it sometimes seems. Love the way you put this all together. So many people skip the “little elections,” but they can add up to big trouble if we ignore them.
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The importance didn’t register until I started complaining about the poor choices running for the big offices and took some time to look. Now I’m more than a bit annoyed. Really have other things to do rather than be political – but as you say, if you don’t keep an eye on things, the resulting “surprises” are ugly. Good thing there are bogs, meadow, and woods to wander. Thanks for playing along
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Groan, it’s that time again, isn’t it. I hate what passes for political “debate” and “discussion” in this country. I weep for humanity….
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It’s only Feb – and it’s already getting ugly with extreme views at both ends and little attention paid to the large group of the middle ground. Backwards world – pretty disturbing. Thanks for sitting down at the comment table
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Aw, I hate election time! It’s mind-boggling really, the amount of crap in the mail, on TV, in papers, etc. and we’re supposed to make some sense of it to make a semi-intelligent decision.
Great choices there for FP (with those choices, I might be inclined to go with the ‘silent type’ 🙂 )
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Huge pile of glossy campaign flyers. If the postal service charged them what they charge letter writers, they would be making a huge profit. Managed to find a bit on the mystery candidate – who actually has a law degree and has worked in courtrooms – looks like a better choice. Thanks for dealing up a comment
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