Wenclas Does Washington

My recent interviewee King Wenclas has a new blog titled Election Follies 2012, and it's pretty amusing political satire.  These days, politics is so absurd though that it takes some effort to find some humor in the horror.  Wenclas does it though.  The latest episode features Mitt Romney trying to learn how to be human.  Good luck, Mitt; you'll need it!

As for me, I already covered the 2012 presidential election in Blog Love Omega Glee, so I don't have much to say about it.  The wonderful Project Vote Smart lists 353 candidates for president, from Dorothy Adams to William Zollinger.  The 2012 crop display similar characteristics to the 2008 crop that I had fun with in my 2008 Third Party Presidential Candidates Sonnet.  My favorites so far this time around include the perennial Vermin Supreme, Robert Newborn Jorgenson (who wishes to "Paint the White House Green to symbolize our commitment to sustainability!"), and Ole Savior, who seems to be running on some sort of Outsider Art platform.  However, many of these "candidates" can't even be bothered to set up a blog nor get on the ballot, so beyond amusement for us, their campaigns are little more than exercises in vanity or flights of fancy for the mentally ill.  Many of the others have fallen to the sides in their respective party contests or are independent candidates who probably won't be on enough state ballots to technically even have the chance of winning.

One candidate who will be enough state ballots to technically have the chance of winning is Gary Johnson, who will be the Libertarian Party standardbearer this time around.  Also, Jill Stein of the Green Party looks like she might be on enough ballots to technically win.  Usually, people get so caught up in the wrestlingmatchesque hype of Democrat vs. Republican (with one side the hero and the other the villain) that they ignore any other choices.  This is, of course, fueled by the massive amounts of money spent propagandizing for one side or another.  You know something's wrong though when millions are spent on getting a job that only pays four hundred grand a year (only--how many of us would like to make that amount though?).

Well, unless you want more debt, wars, looting of the public treasury, and attacks on civil liberties, keep on voting that way.  The track records of both Obama and Romney and their respective parties suggest you'll get more of the same regardless of who wins.  To choose just one example, under the administration of the the last Republican president, George W. Bush, the national debt nearly doubled in eight years.  One might think that given the distaste Democrats had for the Bush administration that the Obama administration would have halted that trend.  Unfortunately, instead the trend has accelerated, with the debt increasing more in four years than it did in the previous eight.

Perhaps the real problem is that the presidency was likely never intended to be as powerful as it is today.  Despite the American revolution over two centuries ago, given the fascination in the United States today with the British royal family (or parasites, if you will) with exhibit A being the attention last year's wedding received here, Americans still desire a king.

It's been said many times before, but it merits saying again.

Be careful what you wish for.