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April 5, 2007Election ‘08: My Protest Manifesto - UPDATEDScroll down for Update:
I’m getting some emails from folks wondering why I am not writing about Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, etc. Note I’m also not writing about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. The answer is simple. I’m protesting. I resent like hell that these politicians - all of them, but I seem to recall it was Hillary who started early, forcing everyone else to do so, as well - began their stumping and fund-raising two years before an election. Some of them - like Clinton - barely finished their re-election celebrations before reaching out their hands for ‘08 campaign funds. They’ve decided to be in our faces for an excessive period of time, and the acquiescent media is allowing it by covering their every belch and hiccup, but that doesn’t mean I have to read it and get sucked into a pre-election vortex that has no business forming just now. Our “public servants,” duly elected to represent their states, are running back and forth across the country giving speeches, eating festival food and raising money, money, money instead of attending to the concerns of their constituents, voting on pending legislation, FUNDING OUR TROOPS and otherwise doing what they were hired to do. I’m not participating in this, yet. I’m not going to allow myself to be suckered into paying attention to these people - and giving them either my money or my time - before I deem it practical and intelligent to do so, and that will be sometime around November of ‘07. Yes. I am giving myself (gasp!) a whole year off from being caught up in the fakery and frummery of modern electoral politics. The press can make all the noise it wants and declare “winners” and “losers” over and over again, week by interminable week, for the next 18+ months, but that doesn’t mean I have to listen. If we allow the pols and the press to maintain the “endless campaign” mentality, we’re all going to be utterly burned out (and tuning out) at the time when we most should be keyed in and observant. So, you’ll excuse me if I don’t get worked up over every poll and every pronouncement. I think it’s bad for the nation, bad for our mental and our civic health, to be in a continual campaign-mode, and I’m not going to simply jump in because I’m expected to, or because everyone else is. And don’t tell me I “must” clue in now, or “it will affect the primaries!” Primaries, schmiaries. I’m not going to go along with this trend. It is abhorrent to me. I believe it will have the effect of exhausting the populace, leaving them benumbed and bereft of constructive ideas or critical questions. And maybe that’s the whole point of creating this long, long campaign season - to dull our senses and move us along like cattle. I have the Pajamas Media Straw Poll thingie up. I rarely look at it, myself, but some people seem to like it. That will be my only concession to the insistent push by too many to get ‘08 rolling too soon. Yes, I may write something here or there about a candidate’s or a party’s actions, but if I do it will likely be because something in particular has struck me about their campaign or the zeitgist reflected therein. Otherwise, no…I am not paying attention to, I am not reading about, I am not writing about this obnoxiously early presidential campaign. And I am not coming out for anyone yet, either. Let this be my manifesto credo: Your Endless Campaign Stops Here. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m weary of the lot of them, and need the break. UPDATE: Siggy manages to say what I was trying to convey in this brilliant exposition of my rather weak essay. Thanks, Siggy. Thanks to reader Rand - a gentleman of the left, and “Eisenhower Republican” - for providing the graphic I’d desired, apparently in celebration of the fact that he and I have managed to agree on something besides music and books. http://theanchoressonline.com/2007/04/05/election-08-my-protest-manifesto/trackback/ 25 Responses to “Election ‘08: My Protest Manifesto - UPDATED” |
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April 5th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Obama’s Campaign Takes In $25 Million…
Sen. Barack Obama raised at least $25 million for his presidential campaign in the first quarter of…
April 5th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Thank you for this bit of wisdom, dear Anchoress (and you do have a LOT of wisdom!) ~ I shall join you in not being too concerned about November ‘08 until November ‘07, or perhaps even later. The politicians are forcing me to watch the Food Network and QVC, neither of which are really good for me!
Guess I could go practice the piano, but what fun would that be?
April 5th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Pack It In Mitt–You’ve Been Savaged In “Doonesbury”…
Andrea Mitchell apparently believes that conservatives read Gary Trudeau’s comic strip, whose freshness rating expired about the same time as the one printed on a 1977 can of Billy Beer:The flip-flops on issues by Republican presidential candidate Mit…
April 5th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Yours is the most sensible position I have heard in some time!
April 6th, 2007 at 7:19 am
Friday Linkage And Open Post…
Couple of things for you this morning:
The Anchoress has taken a stand for electoral sanity.
Jim needs some more coffee quotes. Me, I don’t drink coffee, so I’m not much help to him here. …
……
April 6th, 2007 at 7:24 am
[…] The Anchoress has taken a stand for electoral sanity. […]
April 6th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Pols pols go away; drive us whacko some other day!
April 6th, 2007 at 8:30 am
[…] 6th, 2007 Election ‘08: My Protest Manifesto, is a must read social commentary penned by The Anchoress, on the sad state of affairs that have […]
April 6th, 2007 at 12:54 pm
About that event next November we’re not talking about……
Andrew spoke for all of us at Anchor Rising when he made a vow to not discuss a certain political event, and those who aim to be deeply involved in said event, until the actual event was much closer. It……
April 6th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
[…] go and visit The Anchoress: Election ‘08: My Protest Manifesto and Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred: 40 Days, 40 Nights And The Golden […]
April 6th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
Protesting the permanent election…
Via Pajamas Media, The Anchoress has one of the most refreshing posts I’ve seen in a long time:I’m getting some emails from folks wondering why I am not writing about Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, etc. Note I’m also……
April 6th, 2007 at 5:07 pm
Not a bad idea.
April 6th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
[…] The talk about the 2008 election is coming way too soon for The Anchoress. I’ll bet she doesn’t finish her Christmas shopping by Labor Day, […]
April 7th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
[…] made CPAC a trial run for how well their organizations could perform. Quite a few of us would like a break. We thought the perpetual campaign was a Clinton phenomenon. The GOP has proven […]
April 8th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
[…] The Anchoress has put up her manifesto about the 2008 Presidential elections - and you know what - she's right. This in-your-face, all election all the time nonsense is completely out of hand. I really don't dwell on it, myself. Only a post here and there - at least I hope I don't! But this is saying what should be said to the pols: too much, too soon. We don't need an endless campaign. Hell - we don't want an endless campaign. I’m not participating in this, yet. I’m not going to allow myself to be suckered into paying attention to these people - and giving them either my money or my time - before I deem it practical and intelligent to do so, and that will be sometime around November of ‘07. […]
April 9th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
It’s too friggin’ early……
I’m with The Anchoress on this one. Circumstances are forcing me, it seems, to choose a horse in the race, but I don’t want to. There are still two baseball seasons left before Election Day 2008. We haven’t even had……
April 9th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
[…] Easter! Heroes & Villains; a God Help Us Good Friday Linkfest Your life, or your baby’s? Election ‘08: My Protest Manifesto - UPDATED Some links if you can stomach them Dick Meyer & the Scolds of Kabuki Life - UPDATED Terrorism […]
April 9th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
The part that amazes me is that sitting members of Congress will miss more than half of their votes (Dick Gephardt missed over 90% in 2000) because they’re campaigning. If any normal American skipped their job three days a week because they were out interviewing for a different job, they’d get fired.
April 10th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
[…] Anchoress is protesting the length of the current campaign, writing: I’m getting some emails from folks wondering why I […]
April 17th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
[…] Across the Water, Heads Across the Sky Two weeks ago, I was ready to take The Anchoress vow of chastity and avoid reading about or blogging or commenting about The Endless […]
May 4th, 2007 at 12:18 am
[…] I said I wasn’t going to pay attention - this soon - to the endless campaign, specifically the ‘08 presidential elections and their […]
May 12th, 2007 at 1:52 am
[…] not much for Mitt - I’m not much for any candidate just now, but are any of the millionaire Democrat candidates having their fortunes scrutinized as thoroughly […]
May 14th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
[…] I’m not really covering ‘08 yet, as I’ve said. It’s too early for all of it, but especially too early to start […]
September 28th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
[…] have been loath to write about the ‘08 election because the campaigns began too soon. But it is not too early to say that I cannot recall a more urgent or important election in my […]
January 2nd, 2008 at 1:52 pm
[…] I have tried for the last year or so to ignore as much of it as I could, I have already had a bellyfull of the 2008 presidential campaigns. This season is too long and its […]