If A Politician Falls In the American Landscape, Does *He Make A Sound?

Unreal is the word that comes to my mind as I, with increasing apathy, look out on the political process. It seems to me that in order to seriously take part in this process one has to approach it with a steadfast suspension of belief, say, the way one would watch a fantasy movie. You know what you're watching isn't and couldn't possibly be real, but in order to get your money's worth you have to pretend it could be real.

 

Finally the last two thorns have removed themselves from Mitt Romney's political posterior. He is free now to run his campaign as a "conservative" Republican, even though, judging from his record, this claim is only slightly harder to believe than his every man blue jeans image. Only slightly harder than buying into his "hi y'all" cheesy grits eating campaign pitch in the South.

 

And now all those thorns who one by one removed themselves - after impassioned pleas and heated debate that they, not Mitt, represented the true ideals of Republicanism - are busy telling everyone that they should now rally around the Romney candidacy now.

 

You have to ask yourself: Were these folks lying then, or are they lying now? (The answer, of course, is both!)

 

All of Romney's thorns stayed around before dropping out far longer than they should have, far longer than common sense dictated was reasonable. And because of this, even though the voters overwhelmingly rejected them as irrelevant, suddenly they have "cred" in the eyes of the news media. If it matters to anyone now what they have to say it must be because so many people support politicians mainly because they like them rather than they stand for. (Which, when you think about it dispassionately, is really just their own self-interest and personal ambitions.)  

 

Okay, that might not be totally fair. Some people believe in the concept of a "wasted vote." Some folks don't vote for people because they have no chance of winning. Some of the primary voters held their nose and voted for Romney because "their guy" didn't have a realistic chance of winning. Here is the way I look at it: If you can "waste" a vote by voting your conscience, then politics isn't about conscience at all.

 

Which in fact it isn't. It's about fantasy and make believe, about role-playing and feel-good sloganism.

 

Hey, even Mitt Romney feels it is important to get the endorsement of the fallen ones. He wants them now to kiss the ass that once served as a pin cushion for them.

 

And they will kiss it. They have no choice. It's the way the game is played. And it will matter to the process, this realm of fantasy, the world of politics where we are invited to rally around people and causes we really don't believe in. 

 

* I'm just using the pronoun he  here as a clumsy convenience. I'm not overlooking the many contributions our female politicians have made to the fantasy.