None of the Above

Some of us political creatures have the recurrent experience of choosing "none of the above" almost every time election day rolls around. This is a quite different political experience from that of the run of mill voter.

The regular voter comes to the polling place filled with the knowledge that his or her choices are right for the country. Whatever those other people are saying about the candidate or issue is obviously false or inaccurate. They do that all the time: make up stories to confuse people. The ordinary voter is able to discern the wheat and the chaff in the harvest of politicians without great difficulty. This is demonstrated this year of early electioneering: it is only June, and over 90% of the voters have made up their mind.

I don't know whether to wish it were so for me. Most elections have been political agonies I would have preferred not to have. In 1980, I ended up voting for John Anderson, the Republican moderate, even though I felt some things Jimmie Carter did warranted his re-election. I couldn't vote for Ronald Reagan, and I didn't want to let Ronnie Baby in, either. But, there's Carter again: a good man who simply couldn't get control of things. I didn't hold the Iranian hostage crisis against him. To this day I am convinced the Republicans connived with the Iranians behind the scene to use the hostages for political purposes, to win the election. The hostage release shortly after Reagan's swearing in was shameless: that's when I knew for sure I should have voted for Jimmie Carter. Too late.

It wouldn't be so bad if someone would give me a reasonable choice. It just never happens. It seems the political halls are filled with ambitious, ruthless, egoistical characters, who really have little regard for anyone or anything except themselves.  'The good of the country' is a high sounding phrase irrelevant to what actually happens in elections or among the elected. Bill Clinton's explanation of his motives in dallying with Monica Lewinsky, that he could do it (CBS "60 Minutes" 6/20/2004) - meaning she was available and he could get away with it - was a revealing glimpse of how politicians operate. Clinton's arch-enemy, Newt Gingrich, treated his former wife in a truly demeaning manner, and was a philanderer as well. These men are well-known examples, but there are many, many lesser stars in the pantheon of arrogant SOBs who get elected to office. In politics, nice guys never finish first.

I'll never forget the dirty trick then-Congressman Jeffrey Cohelan played on my guy, Robert Scheer, in the June, 1966 Democratic primary.  The Sunday night before the Tuesday election, with a lot of help from his Union buddies, Cohelan plastered Oakland with an infamous red-baiting leaflet. Basically, he accused Scheer of being a Communist. The charge was absurd, but, in those days, one could not answer Monday morning charges by Monday afternoon. On Sunday, Scheer was winning the primary by a point or two. On Tuesday, Cohelan won 51-49, or 52-48, I don't remember which. Thus we selected the man to represent us in Congress. (In 1968, there was some justice when the district elected Ron Dellums to replace Cohelan.)

Now, almost 40 years after that 1966 primary, I am still confronted with the same thing. For the most part, scoundrels, scalawags and self-seekers get elected to office. Worse still, now they train their "staff" in their pernicious ways, so the staff succeed them in office. Sometimes, however, the long suffering staff must make way for a spouse or child of the great politician.  Yes, even in America, offices are increasingly hereditary.  When they're not, there's a scuffle among the lieutenants to get promoted to major, or colonel, or general. In short, "Democracy in America" is just as far away as de Tocqueville, and getting farther every year that passes since his book's publication.

I have passed in my lifetime from being a utopian to an idealist to a pragmatic citizen to being just cynical. I don't think it is age and experience that has enforced a sense of practicality upon me. Rather, I feel my ideals are alive as ever they were. It's just that as my time grows shorter, I become more despairing of ever seeing them happen.

Also, those of my cohort - the Depression babies - have seen America build and grow from a rural, provincial country to an Empire. This was a transition nurtured by the Cold War and all its appurtenances. In our progress, we became schemers, manipulators and cold of heart. We forgot about poverty; our children never had it to forget. We became unheeding of the struggle of the billions for a little tenderness, for mercy. Instead, we subjected them to our enterprises which work them to death. I was impressed as a young adult by the book, The New Romans, whose claim and prophecy have come all too true. When  I see pictures of those ancient Romans captured forever in Pompeii by Vesuvius, I am chilled because I think, 'will it be any different for us?'

So, another election.

June 21, 2004

Last update: 11/02/2007

© Copyright California Expert Software 2007

All rights reserved.