Every few summers or so, our familys return to this wondrous, nostalgic Politics themepark for a dizzying collective experience of standing in lines, being bombarded with barkers selling fixed games of chance, sugary lies of harmless cotton candy, and otherwise stuffing our mullets with junk food of the soul. We frequently come to the edge of nausea and vomiting, but will willingly stand in line again for the terrifying thrill ride of choice.
This particular election cycle boasts the unveiling of the themepark's proud new ride; the OBAMINATOR! It is a whirlwind of captivating speed and dexterity. The gleeful, gushing faces of wee little Chrissy Mathews and his playmates exiting the ride only to get back in line, clearly describes the joys and splendor of this new attraction to the park. Though it perhaps secretly frightens us to ride for the first time, how could any resisted the temptation to engage in this triumph of modern themepark engineering! But something is wrong. It's exciting to the children, but it's wrong. Well for one thing, It seems they've painted over the parking lot monikers to help us find our vehicles so we can eventually go home. We can't leave. There is confusion and chaos. Someone's going to get sued! Someone might get hurt.
And that's not all that's wrong; while the Flume ride on McCain Mountain is doing fine and has always been acceptable as a reasonable if not perfectly brilliant thrill, there seems to be many issues lately in ClintonLand. Is it true they are lying about how long to wait time is? What was this story about lies? The brochure says this older more "experienced" roller coaster is an awful lot of fun, but some are suggesting that's just hype. I don't know...At least that Obaminator is new.
And so it is. It is like a themepark; it is exhilarating and annoying simultaneously, or at least alternately. It's expensive and it's hard to leave on a whim. It is imperfect, often broken, and yet we are here. And most importantly, the different roller coasters may all advertise the big thrill, but we will have to make choices.
However, something extremely important could be made to take place this election. The Republican Party is cohesive, even out of a field of numerous interesting and respectable candidates, a singular cooperative candidate has been put forward early and solidly. This bodes well for the party, even if it does not guarantee a win in the general election.
But the Democratic Party is facing a bizarre challenge. In the recent past, the Democratic Party has been experiencing polarization, occasionally significant polarization. The wing of the party which is farthest left has become its most vocal component, and most passionate component. With this loud voice and passion, it cannot easily be ignored; at the least it would take courage to dismiss them, as their protests and vengeance would likely be unrelenting. With this neck-and-neck horse race between Obama and Clinton, the primary campaign is heading the Democratic Party to a crazy finale. Thanks to the irrational acts of Howard Dean, Florida and Michigan, two significant states stand to see their populace get no voice in the primary, and consequently the general election as well. This is not actually so rare. The fascination with the early predictions and historic references to nonsense like, "this state has never picked a loser", and similar unfortunate logic, large segments of the country have traditionally never gotten to vote for candidates they would have liked to have supported. It is simply the nature of this staggered voting process in the primary.
But the loss of Florida and Michigan will matter. It will leave resentment, no matter what the outcome of that issue. And then there's the Superdelegates. It is still entirely unclear what role these elitist super-individuals will play, but it is very safe to say it will be divisive and chaotic. Dependent on how this Superdelegates aspect is resolved, there could be an extraordinary Civil War within the party. And perhaps, THERE SHOULD BE!
While imagining this outcome gives the stomach that post Tilt-O-Whirl nausea, take a seat and think about what could be ahead. If the Democratic Party were on the brink of subdivision, the nation could benefit substantially. By that I do not mean an elimination of the Democratic Party constituency in our government. Rather, the party could split in two, giving the far-left radical, noisy, segments its own clear and branded title. It would mean legitimacy and clarity. But to hell with them; more importantly, having lost them as baggage, an extremely mainstream constituency could become more focused, more reasonable, more agreeable, and more electable! This new party could actually position itself in a sweeter mainstream position than anything we have at the moment, and as such could fulfill an enormous longing within the heart of the general population of America. It COULD become the most meaningful party in our present governmental system. It is possible.
It might be kind of like the opening of Epcot Center beside Disney World. Yes, we like Pirates of the Caribbean, but thank God there's a fresher choice available, and in many ways it's calmer, and nicer, and easier to enjoy