And Another Thing! The Election Edition.
Politicians debating the merits of a spending bill
It’s early November in a year that ends with an odd number. You know what that means. Yep – local elections! Is there anything that better proves that we’re all a heartbeat away from a third world country than watching two grandmothers running against each other for county legislature? It’s the civility of a Michael Vick dog fight crossed with the class and dignity of a “Hee Haw” rerun. Local elections bring a special kind of lunacy that make us wonder if Canada is that bad afterall.
Come to think of it, why do politicans always say they’re fighting for stuff? I’ve never seen any fights break out in the government, (except that You Tube video from South Korea which is awesome by the way). 
You’ll hear them say, “I’ll fight for more jobs” or ”I fought for lower taxes”, but never see who they knocked out to get it, or who the insane politician was who wanted to double taxes that required intervention with brass knuckles. In fact, since they already claim to be fighting all over the place, I think that just might work better. Forget the votes and debate. Today in the assembly, last one standing gets to choose the monetary policy.
And another thing … local politics have become nothing more than a long list of political cliches strung together. Watch the ads and mailers. Every time they say they’ll fight for something, give them a cliche point. Every time they speak of lower taxes, another point. If they want to create jobs, there you go – another point. If they want to fight for lower taxes to create jobs – well then you just hit the local politician cliche trifecta!
And the last thing … I questioned a local politician today about her negative ads about an opponent. She quickly wrote back that it wasn’t her idea but the “machine” as she put it. She gave a virtual bloody nose to her opponent and blamed it on others. Come to think of it, that YouTube video of South Korea’s parliament seems rather civilized all the sudden. In South Korea, at least you know who’s doing the punching.