Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Tyranny of the Political Extremes

I keep making the same mistake over and over again - I get hopeful that someone interesting, independent and intelligent will actually be nominated by either major party. It is not to be. From John Anderson to John McCain to Wes Clark - a long string of dashed hopes for politics as not usual. It's the tyranny of the political party system as we know it. To be nominated by either party one must appeal to extremes - the party faithful - in order to win the party nomination. Then the nominees suddenly move toward the center for the general election. Moderates or independents that rock the party boats don't stand a chance. So we end up with pretenders to the center who move back to their extremes after winning the presidency.

Now that Clark is out I'll be returning to my independent status on the voting rolls.

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