And Another Thing…

Okay, so I managed to come up with a couple more coherent thoughts along the same lines as my earlier blog and figured I should write them down before they sink back into the morass of pudding that poses for my brain.

Around here there are a ton of signs starting to go up for elected officials, most prominently judges. From the sheer number of them one can assume that there is some sort of civic election pending. I honestly don’t know and don’t care because it’s “American politics” and I can’t vote anyways.

There are a couple of things that really bother me about these signs. On the surface they appear to be any other political poster/sign you’d find anywhere in North America (I’m making an assumption on what they look like in Mexico here, but for all intents and purposes they’re the same in Canada and the US).

One thing that struck me as an outsider is who/what jobs gets voted on. I grew up in Canada and things are slightly different there. Jobs like judges and police chief/commissioners are appointed rather than being an office which is run for. In my eyes this is a better way to do things. It makes things much more of a meritocracy than a popularity contest and allows those in the aforementioned positions to focus on what’s really important (for example: THE LAW) rather than personal political goals like staying in office or pleasing the idiots whining in public.

With this perception in mind, I have trouble looking at the signage up around town with anything but a cynical and negatively biased eye. It’s always something along the lines of:

<First & Last Name>
<Political Affliation> For <Position>

Now the problem I have with these signs is the whole political affliation part. Let’s use a Judge for example. I want someone in the position who is going to look at the facts of a case that comes before them and base their final ruling on the laws and precedents mandated by the district/state/country that they are in rather than have that ruling influenced by the political affliation of the official. Advertising that you’re Democrat or Republican (the aforementioned evil of two lessers in this idiotic bi-partisan government that exists down here) to me is a mark against you. I want you to do the JOB not do the job as your party sees fit. I want you voting on abortion rights based on your OWN opinions and the facts of the case before you rather than because some monolithic group collective says you need to rule on the case the way they want you too.

Now I’m enough of a human realist to know that this is an extreme example and will only happen occasionally but enough of a cynic to know that it does happen. It sucks absolute monkey balls but that’s the idiocy of modern politics for you.

And I now return you to the pablum that is your regular lives.

One thought on “And Another Thing…

  1. Heh… dragged you into it I did I did… too bad that previous post didn’t quite have a point. 😛

    But This thing you said here, I’ll just comment on.

    “Jobs like judges and police chief/commissioners are appointed rather than being an office which is run for. In my eyes this is a better way to do things. It makes things much more of a meritocracy than a popularity contest”

    I never knew you for wearing rose coloured glasses, my friend, but that is what your view amounts to. It assumes that the man appointing the people is nonpartisan, objective, and most importantly, is interested in representing all, not just the ones that agree with him. Outside of this utopian vision, it means that the system is susceptible to rampant abuse and croneyism, when the leader can just appoint his buddies to high ranking positions, or appoint ideologues who have no interest in the public good beyond what fits their agenda. Yes, a popularity contest seems silly, but at least it gives an opportunity to consider candidates based on merit, unlike a system of appointees.

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