Just when our method of elections was as exposed as WHACKED as much as it could be

[UTUSN]

Now comes the Pope engaging DRUMPF. Coup 2000 appeared to be the ultimate cataclysm back then, but then nothing happened to fix the system, and the Shrub-CHEENEE travesties took their place far worse than what was horribly imagined beforehand. So *anybody* would have been a relief after Shrub, but we have had, at least, the respite for seven years of a President who has behaved sanely and with grace, not to mention multiple accomplishments.

But when this whole election/campaign crap started again, TWO f***ing years ahead of Election Day, it was a matter of are-you-kidding-me just on the grounds of TWO f***ing years. But then the Repuke clown car filled up to the tune of SEVENTEEN of the most ridiculous, absurd, whackjobs ever. What in the world makes the most whacked among us think that they need to inflict themselves in public, much less be appropriate to occupy this job, granting that after Shrub the bar is down to ground level. And who in the world needs two years to decide whether the whack candidate is likable or not-crazy?!1 And laundry lists of issues and policies tell next to nothing about somebody’s talent for making the beast of a government work or not.

Then the so-called debates and journalists. Ever worse questions and “issues” and idiotic distinctions. First the media laughing off the clowns, but soon taking them seriously, and chasing them down for more and more mindless interviews.

But our own candidates aren’t left out of this whackery. Here we are with the two of them left, forced to jump through hoops, forced to tear each other apart, forced to pretend to find feverish “differences”.

Meanwhile, the country of “voters” (most of whom don’t vote) go about our lives only occasionally shocked by the WHACK that breaks out ever more often almost daily.

The Romans understood it: That we hoi polloi had NO need at all to worry our ugly little heads over affairs of state, elections, and war, that we were to leave those things to the big people actually on the public stage and just mind our SuperBowls, have more and more holidays, and keep trudging along. The Early Church also got it: They discussed electing popes every four years but decided that it would mean perpetual electioneering, so they chose to make it for life.

It’s not just this government that’s broken, the Constitution also needs fixing, but apparently things need to collapse under their own weight and be replaced with something else.

[brooklynite]

1. You know that the Roman Republic had elected officials for several hundred years, right?

And while the Roman Emperors weren't elected, most of them thought enough of the responsibility that they "adopted" a qualified successor rather than leave it to their direct descendents.

[UTUSN]

2. Yes, I do know that, and that despite their throwing a hissy fit over Julius's taking over,after him

they never looked back at their Republic. No, Tiberius and many others didn't always/often pick the most qualified. Tiberius picked Caligula out of contempt and spite, saying that Rome deserved the vileness. It was more often than not who was left standing after this or that slaughter.

Now, not that my O.P. rant is so original, but it's GENERAL, not a pretense at scholarship, so the point is not the details but that a system that is not reformed and refreshed will collapse under the dead wood of its own weight. Oh, well, they all do, even over the 5,000 years of Chinese dynasties.

Ah, well, my rant was my own personal indulgence, so I'll take a good night.