Saturday, January 25, 2014

Indistinguishable



I hope you will forgive the lack of posting the last few days; events overtook time, and something had to give.

But I'm back now; ready to go.

But where to? How about Facebook?

What? Facebook? Yes; Facebook. To share some BREAKING NEWS !

I don't care who you are or how you take it, that's funny right there....

Okay; now that I've gotten THAT out of my system...

The part that isn't funny is that we are talking about the 2016 Presidential race already and nobody bats an eye.

Because we started talking about 2016 in 2012. And there were brief mentions of 2016 in 2008. It has become a never ending cycle; one we have no relief from. The question is; is that a bug or a feature?

Face it; how many of us are big enough political junkies that we want to be immersed in politics completely and consistently? We have other concerns; other interests; hobbies, families, jobs.

Somewhere on one of my many bookshelves I have a copy of Theodore H. White’s Making of the President: 1964. The story starts in Dallas, November of 1963. Not particularly because of the assassination, but the reason for JFK's trip to Dallas- to kick off his re-election campaign. A year out from Election Day; not 4 years out.

And at that year out point it was only the political junkies paying attention; not the media. Real public interest didn't start until the Conventions, in July and August. You got whipped into a political frenzy for a few months, voted in early November, and packed away the political trappings like a child would pack up his room before heading off to college; it would be 4 years before the fever hit again.

Today we are constantly bombarded with the political. Hell; we have been told since 2000 that Hillary was inevitable in 2004; 2008; 2016. 

Just like a kid facing another week of school in June; we don't care. We are burned out.

And this is where the bug turns into a feature; we are burned out; we tune out and stop caring. The media doesn't stop bombarding us with 'information' we just stop listening.

And by the time we enter the voting booth in Election Month, it is Name Recognition Lottery Time, and the name(s) we have been bombarded with for YEARS require a Pavlovian response.

Bug, or Feature?

The thing is (HOPEFULLY) this; maybe it will all backfire again. Maybe 2008 wasn't a fluke. Maybe Obama wasn't the "Magic Negro" he is purported to be, but just a latter-day Bill Clinton; an alternative to what else there was. He was the only one to even consider running against the "Inevitable" Hillary.

Was it just palpable Hillary burnout in 2008 that has saddled us with this fiasco?

I am also not discounting the Bush burnout in 2008. The Hillary fatigue got us Obama the Candidate; the Bush fatigue got us Obama the President.

2012? That was just massive voter fraud, up and down the board.

But that is another post.

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