Conventional Wisdom part III

Before the Republican National Convention gets under way (if you don’t count last night’s hurricane coverage, that is) there are a few things I wonder about.

I find myself wondering if either candidate can actually deliver on anything they’re promising right now. I’m old enough to have seen a few of these election things, and I we all know that the candidates seldom turn out to be the people they appear to be during the election. I know that campaign promises will be forgotten soon after the election, that a candidate who stands staunchly for or against an issue may stand somewhere else entirely when the confetti is all swept up, that the realities of doing the job may change a candidate’s mind in important, and often disappointing, ways. I’ve seen it happen often enough.

I remember that Richard Nixon promised to end the war in Viet Nam, then took two terms and the invasion of Cambodia to do it. I remember Bill Clinton promising health care reform, and we still don’t have it. I remember George Bush I promising "No New Taxes" then reneging in a big way. Now, granted, these weren’t necessarily lies; I remember Nixon trying to end the war in Viet Nam, I remember Clinton trying to reform health care, and I remember Bush I trying to keep that "No New Taxes" promise. But in each case, reality interfered. Either Congress or the economy or the Viet Cong or the NVA or whoever/whatever refused to cooperate, and promises were broken.

This happens with every new president. "The best laid schemes..." and all that (Robert Burns, 1785). The point is, no President will be able to keep all of their pre-election promises. The question is, which ones are they going to keep and which are just "campaign promises," and do they even know which ones they are going to eventually break?

And we, the poor voters, have to decide, based of poor information and gut instinct, which candidate we’re going to elect.

Bigger question: Does it matter? I remember the 2000 election, which was so close that we still can’t be certain who actually won (even though Gore clearly won the popular vote, the Electoral College is another kettle of fish) and the matter was decided by the Supreme Court (and whether of not the Supreme Court even had that authority is something constitutional scholars will be debating forever). That election was taken out of our hands, and a President was selected for us; what if (and I’ll admit this is very unlikely, but it did happen once) we had to go through the Supreme Court again? The conservative Supreme Court?

What I’m getting at is this: We have to make an extremely important decision soon, and not only do we not have enough information but the information we do have can change drastically and unpredictably after the decision is made. And besides, the decision could be taken away from us anyway. So what’s the point?

Perhaps the point is that it’s got to be done, or at least tried, if we want our political system to keep working. (Of course, you might not think that it is working; if not, then there's no way to get it working without participating.) Like it or not, an important part of that system is us. Me, I’m going to look at the best information I have and choose the candidate that most reflects my values, knowing full well that even if my man is elected I’m going to be disappointed with his performance at some point. I’m going to make the best decision I can with the information I have or can get between now and November.

Or maybe I’ll just have a few beers and sleep through the first week of November

The Blues Viking

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.