Time Out

This race for the Democratic nomination for President is going on far too long. It's seriously time that we took a hard look at the entire Primary process. Starting the primaries in January is just too early. In a contested election, like this one, you get six months of primaries. Not to mention that we expect people to turn out at the polls in the dead of winter, sometimes in blizzards. At the minimum, the first primary should be moved back to March, or even April.

On top of that, people started announcing for President in January of 2006, fer Chrissakes! Over TWO YEARS before the election. It's stupid. Speaking of stupid, this whole Superdelegate system is absurd. Either make it the will of the people or don't. But don't expect people to get fired up to get out and vote and then have a bunch of party hacks decide who gets it. And while we're fixing stupid, the Electoral College has long outlived its usefulness. There are many things wrong with our process. Does that make me unpatriotic?

I frequent a couple of online forums and the bickering between otherwise sane Democrats has gotten out of hand. It's like children taunting and teasing each other on the playground and calling each other names. It's rather juvenile, but using adult vocabulary, which makes it even worse. There are still reasonable people online, of course, but they're getting drown out, or, as in my case, not joining in the slugfest.

No doubt tensions are high after eight years of the Greedy Old Party running things. The Republicans are running this country into the dirt: financially, mentally, militarily. We need a change, badly.

Hillary Clinton by herself would have been a good antidote to Bush, but then Barack Obama decided to jump into the race. He got a free pass from the media for a long while, probably because the Republicans love to beat up on Hillary so much, and I think they were being careful with the first black candidate. Don't want to be charged with racism, and since the "media" are notorious for focusing on the controversial and sensational, they were hesitant to, or unsure of how to, attack Obama. Now that he is getting a little more scrutiny, his supporters aren't handling it very well. And now that he is catching some flak, Clintons supporters are indulging in a little too much, "Nyah, nyah, nyah."

Fortunately, most of the country is not seeing the Democrats rip into each other. We ARE seeing Hillary and Barack go at it, but they're keeping it somewhat "civil," at least as compared to the online arguments. I've stayed out of it, largely, but there is simply no escaping it. It ebbs and flows, but lately it's flowing straight into the gutter.

So, I'm going to take a break. I'll keep this blog up, but don't look for me on any of the forums I have frequented in the past, at least until AFTER the Democratic Convention. Or at least until people come to their senses.