Saturday, October 09, 2010

How Crazy People Get Elected

Ever wonder why there are so many political extremists on Capital Hill? We are witnessing how it occurs this very election. It would be interesting to watch if the consequences were not so dire. Here is how it works:

  • Something big happens that gets people fired up and opinionated (terrorist attack, gays, economic meltdown etc.). Most of the time these events are planned and politically motivated.
  • Grass roots political extremists unite to "Take America Back". This year it's the Tea Party Movement - but it's been done many times before on both sides.
  • Unqualified extremist "schmoes" run for office on the sole platform of the big event they are fighting (completely ignoring the rest of the counties issues)
  • Typical low voter turnout in the primary elections actually gets these extremists on the ballot - because fired up extremists do vote (the most famous "schmo" this year is Christine O'Donnell)
  • And the final critical element is this: Even though the political party agrees that these people are extremists and do not represent their views at all - they will vote for them anyway because they would rather do that than vote for the other party.
  • Wa-la! A new crop of political extremists moves to The Hill - for life!
People - we must do 2 major things to fix our national elections:

  1. Vote with your head - not with your political party
  2. Enact term limits so when crazy people do get into office they are not there for life.

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