Disproportionate Representation

Today is the first presidential primary of the 2016 Presidential Election Cycle. (I know that's not really a proper noun, but SOMETHING should be proper this cycle. Something.)

Also, the Iowa election thing doesn't count as a primary, because it's a caucus. Whatever that is. 

People in early primary states have an undue influence on the outcomes of our elections. Like New Hampshire. They have 0.4% of the U.S. population. (Data from here.) And they have about 95% of our news interest right now for their 48 or so delegates to the party conventions. It takes  1,237 delegates to win on the R-side and 2.383 on the D-Side.So these are drop in the bucket numbers.

In New Hampshire, they are so done with the attention. Some posted signs to keep away the "personal" attention.

“No solicitation! Political or otherwise. Please respect our privacy. We promise not to knock on your door. Thanks.” --via NYTimes

Other facts about the little granitey state of New Hampshire? They have two Senators and two members of the House of Representatives.

So I live in a place where we have ZERO Senators and ZERO members of the House. That doesn't stop people who we don't get to vote for from telling us what to do. Nope. It's worse to be left out.

Oh, and one last thing. Our Presidential primary date? Used to be in April. Got moved to June. You know, when everything has already been decided.

And then we have to physically LIVE with the winner. Insult to injury.

#notaxationwithoutrepresentation

"Reality" Show?

It's not funny anymore.

It used to be very funny. But not anymore. Not to me, anyway.

Many (including the Doc) were anticipating a glorious return of Tina Fey as the garbled, grammar-impaired former governor of Alaska after Palin's (at times incoherent) endorsement of a presidential candidate blew up the Internet with flurries of "no she didn't," and "what the hell did she say?" and a bunch of snark about her and her family's fortunes.

And deliver Tina Fey did. Down to the Liberace Vegas cardigan, Tina Fey continues to do a spot-on Palin spoof.



Ha! Ha! How goofy is she. Ha! Ha! What a pair. Ha! Ha! Is this real? Ha! Ha! What are the voters thinking? Ha! Ha! What a joke this entire election process is.

But it's not funny anymore. 

It's very very serious.  We are so busy having out-of-the-body-politics-experiences, mocking people--candidates and voters alike--we aren't seeing that we risk the very existence of our democracy.

WHOA, you say. Aren't you going a little overboard? Maybe this political season is pushing you too much to a docu-drama.

Hear me out. 

It's not like the right to vote is guaranteed. There are plenty of places where people can't vote. Or places in which people vote in sham elections. Despite high voter-registration rates, too few people vote in U.S. elections. Too few people know how our government works, even folks purportedly defending it. Our 240 year grand experiment in democracy is not a sure thing. And the way our Constitution is structured, it's up to us to make it so.

It's not enough to be entertained by politics and our presidential process. That's not participation, that's observation. Take this seriously, learn about the issues and the candidates and vote.

Let's use political satire as a motivation. Okay?

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