With GOP and DEM clowns tripping over each other to create headlines that will get them some media coverage, I am ignoring all political coverage until the herds are thinned.
Other than knowing some names, I can't tell you what a single candidate's position is on an issue at the moment. Frankly, their position doesn't really matter since the vast majority of them will adjust their stance to the middle of the road to win votes if they are lucky enough to actually still be in the conversation once the race actually begins. Of course, the far right Bible beaters and the far left radicals will cater to their fringe elements and go down with the ship.
The whole campaign process is sickeningly too long and irrelevant. It exists largely to give the media something to fill there ad and news space while candidates rake in billion dollar war chests and so a number of pretenders have an opportunity to build exposure for some future endeavor, book deal, or speaker's fees.
If I see a piece in the paper about a political candidate, I skip right over it. I change the channel as soon as a story starts about this person or that person declaring they are running for office. I will not watch a single minute of "candidate debates" or forums until we are down to a single candidate for each party and independents' campaign. You may think that approach is willfully being uniformed but I believe nothing meaningful is coming out of the mouths of candidates or the media until they get down to serious brawlers.
Primaries and caucuses have become irrelevant. Listening tours are nothing more than mega fundraising scams. Given the speed with which news travels these days and the power of the Internet, voters can be informed, the media can fully investigate and the entire presidential campaign process could be shrunk to three months. Moreover, the speed with which the state of the world, our nation and the economy change, the specifics of a candidate's views about events of today will have almost no relevance in 18 months.
But an abbreviated campaign period would cost the major networks and their local stations hundreds of millions of dollars in ad revenue, the lobbyists and influence peddlers would have to operate in a shrunken window of payoffs and candidates wouldn't be able to amass bank accounts that assure them of funds for years to come. Hotels would lose bookings that state conventions generate, sign and banner makers would have fewer orders, etc., etc. None of those parties are willing to do what is best for America at their own expense, which is why the election process isn't going to change.
Just so you don't think I am apathetic, I have already made some very firm decisions about whom I will not vote under any circumstances. I will never cast a vote for a Bush or a Clinton. Those two families should not have the right to rule this nation for the better part of three decades, which is what it would amount to if either is elected. The other "nonstarter" name for me is the pathetic clown with orange hair, Trump. Hopefully, by the time this farce of a lengthy campaign process winds down, a worthy candidate from either, or hopefully, no party will emerge. Wake me up then.
