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