Midterms, politics & reality

On Twitter this morning, I posted this: “Deep Thought – Do you remember the 2006 midterms & where you were? Me neither. Expect the identical answer in 2014 about 2010.”

It was tongue in cheek, but meant to remind everyone that the screaming headlines heralding today’s midterm elections is a tad overblown. Indeed, my old newspaper, the Arizona Republic, unconsciously placed the midterms into its proper context on its website. The headline read: “It's Election Day: Polls Open, No long Lines Being Reported." Oh the irony.

Among regular folk, the main talk will be of last night’s World Series finale, the rush hour traffic, the weather, getting little Melissa to soccer practice and, honey, what’s for dinner tonight? The fact is most of the electorate won’t vote today. They never do in the midterms. That’s not a good thing. A penalty in one form or another will be paid for our complacency. But the fate of the nation does not hinge on it. And it probably never will.

Despite the perpetual myth, American life – among its citizenry or its politicians – has ever resembled a Norman Rockwell painting, particularly the one pictured above. But that’s okay. We Americans are imperfect human beings doing the best we can in an imperfect democracy. It was true in 1775, and it remains true in 2010.

Our delicately balanced system of checks and balances makes for a messy republic. The unanticipated rise of political parties made it even messier. The recent backward trend by the news media toward pamphleteering makes it messier still. But it works, albeit barely, most of the time. And though democracy might be the worst form of governance to mind the affairs of mice and men, it remains, as Winston Churchill famously observed, “better than all the others.”

Go vote. But unless you’re a political masochist, I’d steer well clear of the television news media today and its nattering legion of clueless political “analysts.” Talk about a jaw-dropping Reality Distortion Field – Wow.

In fact, there’s only a single congressional race worth watching – the one starring Christine “I’m You” O’Donnell. Will the good people of Delaware elect a witch to the Senate? Pass the popcorn.

So, how ‘bout those San Francisco Giants ... ?