House of Eratosthenes

So, you folks didn’t accept my advice. Well, we’ll have to see how this goes. Maybe over the long term we’ll see another opportunity to support Chuck DeVore for something. His people have run an awesome campaign which has done everything to redeem our democratic republic in the eyes of the rightfully jaundiced, and not a single thing to besmirch it.

I’m not encouraged to see Fiorina emerge as the candidate here. The appearance is that, at least in the Golden State, we’re sinking back into identity politics. The men see one of their own running against a gal, and get all queasy — suddenly we’re buried in a lot of talk about “but she can win!” And why shouldn’t they say that. There is a feeling out there that we’re populated by airheads, who pay no attention at all to the issues and just want to vote for the girl. Takes a girl to knock down another girl.

Alright, well DeVore says his support is going to Fiorina, so that’s where I’m going to put mine. Boxer really has to go. It isn’t even a democrat/Republican thing anymore. “Ma’am” is just pure embarrassment. She says something, and I can just feel heads in the other 49 states swivel toward this one, and hear the “whudthefuck??”

Would it be better to have Fiorina in there? The question is answered before it is even asked.

I read an AP story today which says that California voters just voted to have open primaries. Is this true? That dwarfs all other results.

“Backers of the California measure included Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has long argued that centrist candidates from either major party rarely win primaries.”
An open primary, Schwarzenegger and other proponents of Proposition 14 say, gives an advantage to more moderate candidates who, once elected, might succeed in getting more done.” Really? Where did you come from, Arnold, and Fiorina? And we don’t want to get more done, we want to get less done.

You (we) are so fucked. The virus is inside, there is to be no space or moment left in practical politics to form a thought without it.. The Center, those anointed ones standing resolutely between wine and sewage.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, Arnold;
Drink deep, or taste not the socialist spring;
These shallow droughts intoxicate your brain,
A generation of drinking may sober us again.
- jamzw | 06/09/2010 @ 08:48
You read right, the story is here. And you’re absolutely correct, “partisan gridlock” is about as far away as you can get from the real cause of California’s problems. What you’re seeing is the demise of a typical airline, battered and bludgeoned into insolvency by decades of negotiations with the labor unions, expanded to the size of the nation’s third-largest state.

I’m not saying all of the problems would be solved overnight if we could wave a magic wand and say “no unions.” But it would be a powerful yank away from the edge of the cliff. If we could only make one single gesture that would have the greatest healing potential for the state, that would be it.

Prop 14 is going to be a major disaster. And over the long term, it won’t absorb any blame for the damage it will cause, that’s what’s really scary about it.
- mkfreeberg | 06/09/2010 @ 09:16
Morgan,

When push comes to shove, collectively this country is really pretty spineless. There’s a lot of puffed up talk, but that’s all it ever is. God forbid we actually follow through on anything. Fiorina is a RINO and will not help us at all. Personally, I think the conservatives should break with the Republican Party and form their own party. Yes, I’m well aware of what the short-term consequences will be, but how is electing moderate milquetoasts masked as Republicans any better? Better to have the enemy one can see than the one that’s hidden.

Jamzw,

Like I said to Morgan, we talk a lot of shit, but we rarely walk the walk. I’m registered as an Independent in New York (though technically conservative and will probably switch to Republican later in the summer). We still have straight party primaries here. I personally think that is a good thing. I think if one invests the time and effort to become the member of a political party, then he/she has earned the right to vote in that said primary. Independents have let the chips fall where they may. That’s the price for being a political fence sitter. Giving the milquetoasts the option to vote in the primaries is simply pure nonsense.
- Mat | 06/09/2010 @ 09:34
“Prop 14 is going to be a major disaster. And over the long term, it won’t absorb any blame for the damage it will cause, that’s what’s really scary about it.” Or as de Tocqueville called it, the worst faults in politics are those which do not alrarm the public. This way, we lend ourselves to the process of our own debasement while we are congratulating ourselves upon our civic virtue.

I think there are intelligent revolutionary minds at work in this that the Arnold’s of the world are not intelligent enough to be privy to, because they are convinced they cannot be indocrinated. The freer such a man believes he is, the easier this is to do. Someone living in a stark autocracy is not so easily manipulated, but when the people themselves are the Sovereign, we are very inclined to think well of ourselves.

Mat-
It has become obvious that it is a mistake to have the government oversee voting within party elections. This confuses the right to vote with the right to meddle in another man’s party. Every process becomes a part of government. Why then should it not tell us what to do with our most basic political processes? If you rent a whorehouse for your chuch services, you are going to end up worshipping whores. Nothing against whores.
In Nevada, we have primary caucuses in Presidential years. The govenrnment has no place in this. We screw it up ourselves.
- jamzw | 06/09/2010 @ 10:07
Jamzw,

I agree with your point that “we screw it up ourselves.”
I find it nauseating that most people found Prop 14 to be a good thing. But i’ve said for a long time that people get the society that they so richly deserve. Collectively, this is the society that we wanted. Well congrads everyone, you got what you wanted. We’ll see how all this works out for you in the future (assuming we have a future).
- Mat | 06/09/2010 @ 14:24
Can Fiorina be any worse that that nutjob Boxer?

The day Fiorina left HP, I bought as much of their stock as I had cash on hand for. In a relatively short time after her leaving, I got a 100% return. The market sure didn’t think much of her during her tenure at HP, and the market was sure glad she was gone afterwards.
- pdwalker | 06/09/2010 @ 17:47

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Nice Try, ChuckWednesday, June 9th, 2010

Nice Try, Chuck
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010