An apolitical post about politics

June 2, 2023 by Thomas Wictor

June 3, 2014, is the California statewide direct primary election. I’ll vote, but I don’t care who wins. California is a failed state, which is what the voters want. Nobody can save the voters from themselves. This here is a completely apolitical post about politics. Californians don’t take politics seriously, so there’s no reason I should either.

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost.

—H.L. Mencken

To illustrate how moronic California voters are, they now approve of Governor Jerry Brown’s performance by 59 percent. At the same time, they violently disapprove of Brown’s signature boondoggle, the California High Speed Rail project. They should disapprove, because Brown lied about the cost, lied about the speed, and lied about the timetable.

If you want to know why Brown is going ahead with the California High Speed Rail project, read about the transcontinental railroads of the nineteenth century. It’s a massive exercise in corruption. Brown is paying off the people who elected him, awarding them lucrative contracts. The transcontinental railways are a case study in how a handful of wealthy, well-connected individuals can benefit immensely from government, while everyone else gets reamed.

So Brown should’ve been tarred and feathered and run out of town on a low-speed rail, but instead the same voters who oppose his policies of corruption support him and will re-elect him. They’ve personalized politics; in addition, we as a culture no longer understand cause and effect.

Voters oppose the California High Speed Rail project, but they can’t link that particular crime-in-the-making with the guy most responsible for it. They like him! So they can go to hell. I have no time for idiots.

Since I don’t follow California politics, I didn’t really know who Neel Kashkari was. A robocall said he was a businessman, but he’s actually a banker and former interim Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability. A Republican, he helped oversee the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) for both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

He’s running for governor now. Here’s his official portrait.

You really need a closeup to get the full effect.

Neel, dammit, stop looking at me! You’re freaking me out! Talk to some reporters or something.

Okay, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea.

Tell you what: Maybe you should grow out your hair and learn to break eye contact every now and then, and…and…

Now, see, you’re doing it again. Could you please blink occasionally? How about a smile?

GAAAAAAAH! Tone it down! Tone it down!

Oh boy. That doesn’t work either, does it? Um… I’ve got it! Give a commencement address! It’ll show off your interpersonal skills and motivate the voters. They’ll stampede to the polls for you! With just one speech, you can light a fire under the demoralized, cynical electorate.