Silly Season - a.k.a. Election Time

The 2011 elections are a mere 19 days away. Local elections have generated a fair amount of silliness - incumbents who are indignant, challengers who are clueless and issues that confuse the populace because, really, who is going to read the massive insert in the paper this week that attempts to explain it all? Those of us inclined to read it already understand the issues. Those not so inclined will not read it, remain confused or ill-informed and vote whichever way the wind is blowing. This is not merely an Ohio affliction. 

If you thought it was an Ohio affliction I call your attention to the hoopla over the so-called GOP "debates". Can you call it a debate with no set questions, no real moderator and a bunch of people on a stage who just yell at each other for a couple of hours? That may be an ordinary day in Congress but it isn't a debate of the issues by well-informed candidates. It is instead that aforementioned "every which way wind" blowing across TV screens and web sites, distorting messages as the wind on a winter's night distorts sound.

I typically refer to the run up to an election as "silly season". In 2008 I thought it began way too soon and got way too silly. Although it was a lot of fun to watch Tina Fey do her Sarah Palin thing. The run up to the 2012 extravaganza has already begun. It is not even November of 2011 and we are being subjected to a parade of potential GOP candidates wherein the flavor of the day is whoever is NOT Mitt Romney. Republicans can't quite accept that he is still the number one guy on that side of the fence and given how one by one the rest of the pack bubbles to the surface then pops back down into the muck they probably should just get over themselves, pick a candidate and start building a solid platform. In the meanwhile they are doing a lovely impersonation of a tar pit. 

Oh wait. As too many cooks spoil the broth, too many different ideological perspectives can wreck a platform. We have the Tea Party, the religious conservatives, the middle of the road types, the classic GOPers and various other fringes all bundled up together in one GOP mess. Goodness, I thought only the Democrats were that disorganized. Poor Republicans they have no idea how to cope with that much confusion and disorganization. While as a wise man once said: "I don't belong to any organized political party... I'm a Democrat."

While the mud slinging has not yet started in earnest on the national level, the various factions are mixing up their mud pies in preparation. 

The local candidates for city council and whatnot are testing out their own aim with their own dirt. That all seems to be boiling down to a plea to throw out the incumbents. The argument being that the new people can sweep in and fix certain things. 

Really? As a member of council you can single-handily tell the (federal) EPA to stuff it and repeal mandates (that the city is actively fighting through proper channels - a fact often ignored by these twits) that agency has imposed? I think not. 

For the most part the challengers have no idea how city government works despite having attended some council meetings. They don't understand that there are some things the administration does not need council's approval to do - there is a separation of powers at the city level for a reason. Council is the LEGISLATIVE body not the EXECUTIVE/ADMINISTRATIVE body. There are things they approve, but there are things that they do not. Most of the grumbling of late has been over items that they have no say in because they don't understand the separation of powers, administrative authority granted under the Ohio Revised Code and/or the Charter. They would rather be little tin gods and ignore the office of the Mayor, the Auditor, the Finance Director and so on. It boggles the mind. Especially since this is not a complicated matter, this form of government, it is pretty straight forward. Yet so few understand it and how it works. 

So first we will muddle through the local elections and the state ballot issues and probably shoot ourselves in the foot. Afterward we will be subjected to a national field of silliness that not even Monty Python could do justice to. Oh joy. I can hardly wait....