Dad's Ballot

"You will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters."
--Dr Peter Venkman (Ghostbusters)

As a kid, I knew little about my parents' politics. Not that I cared, as politics was as distant as Jupiter in my mind growing up.

Despite my disinterest, I did happen to pick up two politically-oriented tidbits about my Dad, purely by accident I suppose. One was that he didn't like Nixon. Nixon resigned in August, 1974 while we were on vacation. It happened to be Daddio's birthday, and I think we may have put an extra candle on the cake to celebrate his extra special day.

The other thing I was privy to was Dad's voting strategy. He prefered not to vote for incumbants. "I vote 'em all out," he would say.

Whether he actually did so or not, or did so in non-partisan fashion, I have no idea. But a let's-clean-house voting heuristic reflects belief that politicians produce results that are more alike than different, and that those results are generally unsatisfactory.

Given our current structure, it's a wonder that people should expect otherwise. It goes something like this:

a) Political favor is for sale, and SIGs purchase it thru various means.
b) Thru borrowing, taxing, and inflation, politicians marshall resources to satisfy the SIGs that support them.
c) Government spending goes ever higher, and does so in bi-partisan fashion.
d) Politicians lever up (read: borrow) in order to satisfy more demand for political favor.
e) Debt levels rise ever higher, and the country's financial situation gets more precarious.
f) Voters ditch incumbents in favor of a new slate that promises to 'change things.'
g) return to a)

We are destined to be stuck in this Do Loop until one of two things happen. We restructure the system to prohibit sale of political favor. Or the system collapses under the weight of massive debt.

Meanwhile, Dad's basic voting strategy will likely remain a favorite.