The primary season is almost over, and thank fuck for that. Because there are some things more agonizing than presidential election cycles, but there aren't many of them. We didn't always do things this way. It used to be lot different, and slowly over the years we got stuck with this awful system that still needs to be fixed. But we're 200+ years into this thing. If someone was going to fix it, it would have been fixed by now.
But when America was in its infancy we had a different method. State delegates would choose electors (thus birthing the Electoral College, sadly, which is one of the things we really need to get rid of), and those electors would look at who is running and make their votes. The guy with the most votes is the president. The guy with the second most votes is the vice president. The rest of the lot can go kick rocks. That worked pretty well for the first election. In case you didn't know, George Washington was elected president UNANIMOUSLY. The one and only president to have been elected in such a fashion. But once he left office and political parties formed, a lot of flies got in the ointment.
I've talked about the Jefferson vs. Burr election before and how we have an amendment to the Constitution because of it. (And that Burr should have been our third president.) But that was the breaking point for the system. The votes for president and vice president would be separate from here on out, and Congressional caucuses decided who the candidates were.
About twenty years later it changed again. People wanted powerful state leaders to have more say in elections. So the state leaders of each party got together to choose the candidates, and we lived by this rule for a long, long time.
We really adopted primaries during the 1952 race. Politicians had to press the flesh of, not citizens, but industry and political leaders. They were the ones who would choose the candidates, and each person running had to suck the requisite amount of dick to get the nomination. You know the old joke about how candidates are selected in dark smoke filled rooms? There's a basis in fact for that. That's the way we've done it almost since the country began.
And then came March 31, 1968. President Lyndon B. Johnson made the following announcement to the American public: "I should not permit the presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year. I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes. Accordingly I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president."
First of all, the idea that a president would not want to get involved in partisan divisions is absolutely batshit crazy. But I have long held that whoever sits in that Oval Office is the president for ALL Americans, not just the Americans who voted for him. So, according to the job description, the president needs to serve all Americans. You can see most presidents doing that EXCEPT for one. I think you know who I'm talking about. So LBJ wasn't crazy when he said those things. He was doing his job. But can you imagine a president today saying something like that? Never mind taking himself out of the race, but not catering to just his voters? That's pretty impressive.
An incumbent president is always the nominee because they're very difficult to defeat. Imagine the Democratic Party's horror when they realized they had a sudden vacuum and needed to fill it with a candidate ASAP.
Which is why the voters now decide the candidates with primaries and conventions and such. Which is why we have to pay attention during the primaries, no matter how much we want to ignore the dog and pony show. We already know the big boys, but with a new candidate you have to catch them early before they become . . . candidate-y? They're more likely to fuck up in the early days than after they've had the chance to become seasoned.
But we don't have to worry about that this time out. Biden and Trump is the rematch fuckin' nobody asked for, but it's what we're stuck with. I don't say that I hate people often, because hate is a strong word, but I hate, loathe, despise, etc. Donald Trump. I don't like Biden, either. I think he's a business as usual politician whose only saving grace is his ability to beat a loathsome toad who once squatted in the Oval Office.
Gun to the head? I guess I'd have to go with Biden if only to deny that cum-gargling dumpster fire another term in office.
So yeah. Things used to be different and not quite so agonizing, but we have more power than we did way back when. It would be nice to not have the Electoral College. Why would you want to choose the people who will choose the president? Doesn't that sound like bullshit to you?
I don't know why I waste time with asking that question. We all hate the Electoral College, but we refuse to do anything about it because it's something we've always done. Tradition can eat my sack, balls and shaft.
To quote a great man . . .
"Well, what'll I do now? Go to sleep? Pull the pud? We need new pornos! Well, guess I'm still writing."
No comments:
Post a Comment