After much soul-searching, thought and deliberation, I have decided to change careers . . .again. In today’s fast-moving business and political world, the most sought-after professionals and highest paid people per capita (rounded off, curved up and correlated to the score of the average of rising 2nd graders on their California Achievement Test) are political pollsters. Yes sir, for precisely 1.2% of my productive time (not including unscheduled naps), I have been conducting what I call governmental, obviously meaningless, erratic, and random field surveys otherwise known as the GOMER Poll both here and in pockets of irritability on the other side of the Ohoopee. My unscientific, unproven, unscored and otherwise unreported success is due to a list of cleverly phrased and probing questions sprung on unsuspecting people in unprepared settings and impromptu situations such as gas stations, banks, backed-up grocery store check-out lines and crowded waiting areas at Emergency Rooms where resuscitations are taking place on people who have just come in from gas stations, banks and grocery stores. There is good money in reporting misery, depression and rage, and the therapists and psychiatrists have had a corner on the market for long enough.
Now, out of respect for my loyal readers, (thank you both), I will of course continue my weekly column. The truth is, I don’t know any more about polling than I do about parallel parking the space shuttle, but I do know that right now this country has got Aardvarks running the ant farm. In case you need reminding, there is a national election for PRESIDENT coming down the tracks. Now, consider this picture: in just the last month, a sitting U.S. President has been ordered to withdraw from the upcoming election, and get packed up to leave by the big shots in his own party, a former President who is also running for his old job has been shot in the ear by a would-be assassin, the national party of the Democrats has named Kamala Harris as its candidate for the presidential contest without even holding one primary election in Kansas or Iowa or Vermont or anywhere. Before Biden dropped out, the only person with a lower approval rating than Joe, was Kamala. Not one single primary vote has been cast for her, and in less than 100 days the voters in this land will choose a President from two contenders that most of the people in the U.S.A. said they do not want to see in the White House. You just can’t make this stuff up, and if this was a movie, no one would ever believe it, yet here we are. Sadly, at this point, it can only be described as a race to the bottom. One candidate’s campaign might still be redeemable, but the other is beyond correction. I will leave it to you to decide what the ending to this dismal drama will be, but if your question is, how did we get here, the best answer might come from Pogo in the old comic strip, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Whether you call this country a democracy or a constitutional republic, the key to its success will always lie in the serious responsibility and reverence that we should attach to the process of selecting our leaders. No political party, elitest faction or organized power of any other description can be allowed to override the will of an informed, involved and fair-minded voter. So, when you wonder about our current situation, ask that voter in the mirror, “what happened?” It all starts with one person, one vote. In every election, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, the power, the privilege and the obligation is ours. Change is possible.
