Here in Arizona’s first congressional district — a monstrosity of 58,608 miles into which you could drop New York State with room to rattle around — the incumbent Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick appears likely to join the tide of congressional Democrats polishing up their resumes after November. Should that happen, her successor will be Paul Gosar, a Flagstaff dentist who won the favor of both Sarah Palin and Joe Arpaio — the Arizona equivalent of having an image of the madonna appear in the steam on your bathroom window.
Kirkpatrick clearly anticipated a few speed bumps on the way to reelection — she spent the better part of the last year wandering the district and collaring people to assure them that she had no intention of kicking in their doors and grabbing their gun collections. Nobody ever really suspected otherwise, of course. This is the southwest; if anybody had ever suspected her of gun-controller-ish leanings, her political career would have required a change not just of area codes, but of driver’s licenses. That put her repeated pro-gun reassurances in the same camp as the cheating ex-girlfriend who tries to smooth things over by saying, “well, at least I never slept with your brother.”
Well, yeah, babe, you answer — but my brother is gay!
Who she did tryst with was Obamacare, and that’s not going down too well in CD-1 — especially with a medical type gunning for her under the Republican banner.
Frankly, though, I’m sitting this one out. In years past, I’ve dragged myself, unenthusiastically, to the polls to register my opposition to the candidates who most disgusted me. That usually involved voting for a few Libertarians, and whoever sucked less on the Republican and Democrat lines and then going home to lick my wounds. But this year there’s no Libertarian running for Congress in the district. And the Democrats up and down the ticket are competing with Republicans primarily by arguing that they hate Mexicans every bit as much as their opponents.
Yes, Ann Kirkpatrick also promises us that it makes her so mad when the feds throw taxpayer money around — except for the porculus bill, of course, which throws a deep, dark shadow over all other federal check-writing efforts.
But lest we think that fiscal sanity may dwell elsewhere, Paul Gosar chimes in to assure us that he wants to keep Social Security as bloated, ill-conceived and disastrously unsustainable as Kirkpatrick (all we have to to to save it is let Republicans spend money instead of Democrats).
And Gosar likes throwing young American bodies into overseas adventures just as much as does the current congresscritter.
Oh yeah. And Kirkpatrick wants to outlaw burning the American flag as a form of political protest.
Gag.
These aren’t stupid people, but they are craven, nasty thugs who show no obvious interest in reining-in government, promoting peace or expanding freedom. They spin their presentations slightly so that one candidate is a bit more in line with one party and the other candidate favors the line for the opposition, but it’s a race to the bottom to see who can wave the flag in the most disgusting way. I can’t see much there to motivate me to get out of bed on election day.
So I won’t.
Darren
September 14, 2010 at 3:59 amGreat article! I’m about to launch my principled nonvoting campaign. It sounds like you might be interested. Stay tuned I’ll have the kick off article ready today or tomorrow.
akaGaGa
September 14, 2010 at 9:02 pmI realized a while back that voting for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil, so I’ve given up the practice, too – but then I live in New York.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Arizona the state where you can vote for “none of the above”? That might get me to the polls.
liberranter
September 15, 2010 at 1:38 amAnyone who votes in any election in this state testifies to their own lobotomy. Fortunately, if the last election serves as any guide, only nineteen percent of this state is “lobotomized.” UNfortunately, nineteen percent is still enough to push criminal morons into state-sanctioned offices where they can shaft the rest of us who still retain residual common sense.
J.D. Tuccille
September 15, 2010 at 6:29 amakaGaGa (and how is Lady doing 😉 ),
I’m afraid that Nevada is the forward-thinking jurisdiction that implemented “None of the Above” as a ballot choice. In Arizona, we’re stuck with actual power-seekers.
liberranter,
If only 1% of the electorate bothered to drag themselves to the polls, the political class would still claim a mandate — and that the rest of us were clearly satisfied with the results.
akaGaGa
September 16, 2010 at 8:48 amAh, Nevada. If I wanted to live in the desert, from a purely political standpoint, that’s the one I’d choose. I’d be refreshing to vote without compromise.
And I don’t know how “Lady” is doing, other than continuing to annoy me. I’ve been GaGa (as named by my granddaughter when she was learning to talk) for at least five years longer than Lady has been around – but she still gets the press. Can you imagine?