Monday, March 17, 2008

Rants

I read an article today that I had to sum up here because I agree with it, and I feel its an interesting point of view.
On the topic of Michigan and Florida do-over primaries:
This article (or editorial, really) starts with a jab at the 'feel good age' where there cannot be any losers, where "every kid gets a trophy, even the losers." This kind of thinking, where 'good god, don't ever let the children feel like they weren't good enough' takes the place of honest feedback (sorry, Johnny, but your team chased rabbits when the other team was running drills) or (sorry, Bobby, but the guy you were guarding was a foot taller than you. You'll have to work on boxing out, or you'll never be able to compete with people his size). This may FEEL like you're helping the kids, but I honestly think that it goes WAY to far in many cases. No, you shouldn't berate kids or adults, but I also don't think you should reward failure/disobedience.
The way I see the FL/MI scenario is this:
-Florida and Michigan said they wanted to move up their primaries for any certain number of reasons.
-The Democratic Party said no. You can't. And if you do, we WILL NOT seat your delegates this year. They will not be counted.
-The presidential campaigns all received this information and acted as each candidate's personality dictated. (Barack completely backs out as the Dems leadership suggested. Hillary left her name on the ballot. The ONLY major candidate on the ballot. She won, unsurprisingly.)
-Now pro-Clinton groups and uninformed individuals are spinning this story to fit the new "feel good era." People aren't getting their votes counted! People's voices aren't being heard!! OF COURSE THEY AREN'T. They were told they wouldn't. Its like when your mother says, if you eat that cookie, you WILL NOT get play time after dinner. Now the MI/FL children want their play time, too. NO! You were told what the consequences would be, and now (Oh My God!) you must live with them. Grow up and act your age and stop pouting like a spoiled, petulant child.
-Furthermore, no re-do contest in MI/FL can be 'fair' in any sense of the word. Obviously, Clinton NEEDS those delegates to have any chances of wining the nomination. Of course she's going to get on her soapbox 'fighting for all those american voters on MI/FL who aren't getting their voices heard.' She needs them to be seated. Of course Obama is going to stump to keep them from being seated, he's in the lead and wants to stay there. They all agreed to sidestep MI & FL, and if he's been trying to keep them from being seated, they're going to hate him and he's going to do badly. Duh. This seems so obviously unfair and ridiculous to me that I'm amazed at how much debate is going into it. The answer is simple. MI/FL made their choice to move up their primaries. Now they have to live with their decision. I realize that the left-wing do-gooders and hippies (of which I am a part) are going to have a hard time giving some tough love. If this were the Republican party, this wouldn't even be an issue. We said no, you did it anyway, you live with the consequences.

If MI/FL's delegates get seated, and it lends to/results in Clinton winning the nomination, I'm voting for McCain in November. I'm dead serious. People are finally excited about politics and process for the first time in awhile, and the Clinton's win-at-any-cost (or at least until you have articles of impeachment filed against you) strategy is disenfranchising people from the Democratic party. She's getting support from GOP voters who WANT to hurt the Dems chances in November.
My pledge to the DNC: if you seat MI/FL delegates in ANY way, I'm not voting Democrat for 10 years. I'm guessing that I'm not the only one. Choose wisely, even though you may be willing to let MI/FL have their cake and eat it too, the Democratic Party may not be so lucky.

2 comments:

homebase said...

No re-do's!!!!!!!!!!!

Stoppable said...

well argued on FL / MI points. i agree 100%, the hypocrisy of the state party leadership is stunningly offensive. They chose to silence the votes from their state themselves!

arrrgh!