While many of us were tuned into the Pennsylvania Primary to witness the latest fiasco, most all of the media attention was on the battle between the two socialist candidates, Clinton and Obama. While I do not care for either candidate, or their politics, or the way they have run their campaigns, I must respect that at least this is a contest. As I have said before, anyone not willing to stay in the race, at least through Super Tuesday but really until the very end, was never really a viable candidate to begin with. Much as I can’t stand her let alone trust her to hold my pocket change, I have to give credit to Clinton for staying in the race. But that is as far as it goes.
I give her credit, not because she had a good showing and not because I think she has a leg to stand on. Listening to her supposed plans of reform is enough to keep me up at night with the heebee jeebees. I am opposed to Socialism and increasing government intervention but almost all the candidates are taking us down that path. Nor do I think that her motives are anything other than an ego trip and a play for the power and control that she yearns for. You just know that she is loving all the attention and isn’t about to give it up anytime soon. I do however respect that fact that she hasn’t given in yet and that her desire is strong enough to keep her and her followers disillusioned enough to continue.
So will the 10% win in Pennsylvania be enough to change the race. There is still quite a way to go to the finals and there are still a lot of stories to be played out. Do you think Rush Limbaugh’s antics had anything to do with Tuesday’s events?
No, the real story that should have been told and should have come out of this whole Tuesday mess, the one for which none of the media even made mention of is that the Republicans also had a primary election and though the turnout was far less than that of the Democratic party the results were far more telling of the other story.
McCain won in Pennsylvania,… but he only obtained 73% of the vote. He has clinched the Republican nomination for all intents and purposes and yet he only got 73% of the vote. Who got the remaining 27%? It was split between Ron Paul with 16% and Huckabee with 11%. Huckabee has officially dropped out of the race and he still picked up 11% of the votes. Huckabee isn’t even running and he picked up 1 out of every 10 votes.
Ron Paul has a campaign that seems like a lost cause yet he continues to hang in there, and unlike Clinton he is fighting the good fight. He has practically no media coverage and seemingly no support yet he is stilling hanging in there. And why does he hang in there? Because he has a message that none of the other candidates have. He also has the backing of supporters that are strongly behind him and his message. Though he has no chance of being the party’s nomination and practically no chance of being the runner up, he should, thanks to his strong show of support, be able to gain enough influence to help shape and define the party platform at the convention.
I say he should but others have tried only to be quickly swept aside and forgotten as a footnote on the pages of our political histories. Ross Perot’s efforts come immediately to mind, as do other independents that were unable to garner influence in their parties of choice such as Nader and Jesse Ventura. Even after the win of the governorship in Minnesota as an independent, Ventura’s influence for change was not as great as one would have hoped, nor is its permanence assured. I’ve heard him speak of the difficulties he faced in working with the old ways and the old parties.
I have a feeling that the Ron Paul story will eventually surface again, if only as a side story to the Republican convention, but it is an important story none the less. I have often seen races much closer than this, battles on community issues that went down 51 to 49 and when the dust settled, the winner has no recollection of the voice and concern of those 49. In fact, all the winners will tell of how they received a ‘clear mandate from the people’ that their side is the only side that matters. Will this time be any different? Time will tell.
Real reform generally starts from without and must work its way to within. If you are an insider, chances are you got there, not by rocking the boat or trying to create change, but by being one of a like mind with those on the inside. In the political arena, there are very few individuals that have enough true power to be able to speak their own minds. Most are stuck speaking the party line in order to appear to be a person of influence. It is those that can define what the party line is that are the true leaders and yield the real power. All of the others are just taking polls and leading popularity contest.
So back to the real story from the Pennsylvania primary, will this showing of a lack of party solidarity and singular support for the Republican nominee cause concern for the real power brokers in the party? Is McCain an individual or is he just a party member? Will he continue to ignore the criticisms that have been leveled on him from members of his party or will he pander to them in order to garner their support? Is the Republican party facing divisiveness in the same manner the Democratic party is? Is this the time when a strong third party candidate, one who truly stood for the values this country was founded on could take hold of America’s hearts and break us from the tyranny of a two party system?
I say a third party candidate because we have already excluded any chance of their being a valued candidate from the existing two parties. I also think that a third party candidate is the only option because as I have said in the past, our election process for the last few decades have not been about voting for something as it has been about voting against someone. With about half of each party disenfranchised over their parties candidate, this seems like the ideal time to offer them something better. And this time around it wouldn’t take much at all to come up with a better alternative. I’m not holding my breath, but we can still dream can’t we.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
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