Saturday, January 14, 2012

Ho-hum Elections

The Republican primaries now show all the signs of collapsing into a deadly boring heap at the feet of Governor Romney; which means, in turn, that the General Election in November, barring surprises, will also be a boring affair. Boring is way better than scary, of course. I wouldn't wish for an Obama v. Gingrich, Obama v. Perry or Obama v. Santorum election, fun-filled as any one of them might have been for the media and comedians.

I cannot raise the slightest enthusiasm for politics at present. The poem which follows is a reasonable reflection of my feelings.

The Last Election, by a favourite poet of mine, John Haines, who died in March 2011. He was a former Poet Laureate of Alaska; more, and his natal chart at an archived Feb. 2010 post containing another of his poems.
There's also a lovely tribute post to the poet at The Quivering Pen blog:
My Alaska, Our John Haines.

The Last Election

Suppose there are no returns,
and the candidates, one
by one, drop off in the polls,
as the voters turn away,
each to his inner persuasion.

The frontrunners, the dark horses,
begin to look elsewhere,
and even the President admits
he has nothing new to say;
it is best to be silent now.

No more conventions, no donors,
no more hats in the ring;
no ghost-written speeches,
no promises we always knew
were never meant to be kept.

And something like the truth,
or what we knew by that name-
that for which no corporate
sponsor was ever offered-
takes hold in the public mind.

Each subdued and thoughtful
citizen closes his door, turns
off the news. He opens a book,
speaks quietly to his children,
begins to live once more.

More thoughts on elections:
Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right.
~H.L. Mencken

When one may pay out over two million dollars to presidential and Congressional campaigns, the U.S. government is virtually up for sale.
~John Gardner

If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.
~Emma Goldman

7 comments:

kicksotic said...

I don't know if it's going to be as boring as you think. With Romney's Progressed Moon just having entered Aries and this Moon conjunct his Progressed Midheaven and both trine his natal Pluto around Election Time, there's a chance sparks could fly.

In addition, Obama's going to be dealing with Tr Saturn t-square his Jupiter/Mercury, so I'm not sure his rhetoric is going to fly and his speeches are going to make people weep as they did in 2008. If anything, especially with the Tr South Node conjunct his Natal Moon, he'll feel frustrated, paranoid, angry and hurt, maybe even betrayed. Could be a fascinating backstory to all of that.

Add Mercury stationing Retrograde the day of the Election, and it looks like it could be fairly ... interesting, I guess?

I agree, though. Politics have the ability to both bore and annoy me at the same time.

Twilight said...

kicksotic ~~ Hi!

Well, yes, I guess there'll be a few sparks flying here and there.
I hope the Prez does indeed feel betrayed - then he might understand how many who voted for him in 2008 feel now! ;-(

The one thing that would light it all up for me would be for Obama to face a primary challenge, but that's out of the question.

There'll always be the unexpected to expect though, with Uranus in Aries.

kicksotic said...

A Primary Challenge isn't necessarily out of the question, especially if you consider the deep anger Democratic Leaders State-by-State feel at Obama (who's not known for lending support unless he needs support in return) and the chart of someone like Hillary.

She'll have Tr Saturn in an applying conjunction with her Sun. If history is any guide, this bodes well for her, usually evident at times when she's made great strides or been promoted. She'll also have her Progressed Moon conjunct -- at Election Time -- her natal Pluto/Mars with Progressed Jupiter perfecting into an exact trine with Pluto then as well (I think).

This does not feel like the chart of a woman who's retiring from the public eye or public political life.

As evidenced by her Primary wins in 2008 -- remember, Obama only won one major State in the 2008 Primary, his own, Illinois; she won everything else --, it wouldn't take much for her to get the State organizations on her side, get the money raised, and mount a very serious challenge to Obama. It could very easily happen.

And with that Tr Saturn square his Jupiter/Mercury and his Progressions not as indicative of success as Romney's or Hillary's, it very well could.

Frankly, I think he wants out, wants to leave the hard work and criticism behind, and pivot into the private sector, sit on some Boards, do nothing, and rake in millions.

A lot easier than playing Commander in Chief.

Twilight said...

kicksotic ~~ I'd love that to happen - Hillary to challenge. She has said she definitely will not do so though.

She might run - if Obama were to stand down (or be stood down by DNC or his masters, the Oligarchs). He's probably sick to the back teeth of it all by now.
Maybe it's not as "good to be king" as he thought it was going to be! Narcissist that he is, I can't really see him standing down unless forced - not with that billion dollar war chest he's said to be expecting from the corps.

In some ways it could be good for Romney to beat Obama. Then the Democrats in Congress might begin putting up a bit more of a fight against stuff Obama would probably have done anyway, but on which he would have been given a free pass.

Anonymous said...

GP: Modern times: The Italian cruise-ship captain had left the "sinking boat" well before the rescue of all passengers and crew was cpompleted...

Were the US or France to founder, who thinks that Obama or Sarkosy would akt differently?

That's why politics and cruise travel became uninteresting, good for the credulous masses...

Twilight said...

Anonymous/Gian Paul ~~

Yes, indeed!

I've always said that they'd have to pay ME to go on vacation on a cruise ship - can't stand that thought of it. Even moreso now!

Interest in politics is getting to be much the same, as you say.
:-)

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