I wrote this in early '06 during the brouhaha that ensued in the heartland when the illegal alien Mexicans took to the streets waving their flag and demanding their "rights." Both Democrats and Republicans were desperate not to offend the "Latino" community by enforcing our Customs and Immigration laws. When their reaction to the demonstrations was to try to legalize all the Illegals already here, I predicted Civil War II was coming. I coined the term "Incumbrepublocrat" to add the factor of incumbency to the more common "Demopublican" or "Republicrat" labels Independents and Third Party adherents often use.
Incumbrepublocrats
Closing the border, straightening out the stupid laws, and enforcing the important ones, requires honest Representatives in government to carry out our wishes. I suspect that I am not the only one who rarely finds someone worth voting for, but plenty to vote against. I generally just hold my nose while voting for the “lesser of two evils” out of fear of the specter of the greater evil winning. It drives me crazy that intellectually I know I should be voting for the Libertarian, Independent, or other third party candidate. Yet, I know the Incumbrepublocrats have the game rigged so that no third party has the slightest chance of ever breaking their cabal.
Fear of either left or right extremist agendas, almost always suckers me into forfeiting my vote to the more moderate of the two Incumbrepublocrats in the race, even when I don’t like either. I am now so disgusted that I hereby vow never to do it again. If I can’t find someone worthy of voting FOR, I will vote “none of the above” by the simple expedient of not voting at all for that office. What would happen if they had an election and nobody came? At least they couldn’t claim a “mandate” for their foolish agenda, when all we intended to convey was the other guy’s was worse, and nobody was addressing ours.
I am nearly convinced that it is folly to ever vote for any incumbent, it just encourages them to think they are our leaders, and they waste at least half of their time campaigning for reelection in one way or another. Regardless of how likable or principled one might appear to be, when push comes to shove, they rarely represent the wishes of their constituents when they perceive doing so might jeopardize their own careers or their caucus’ agenda. They call it “politics,” but I didn’t want to vote for a caucus platform, a caucus leader, or even a caucus politician, I was trying to hire a representative of my interests.
TV commercials are expensive so they have to kowtow to the special interests, which fund their reelection campaigns. They count on most of us to ignore politics until a few weeks before a national election, and then half of us not even bothering to vote. Even when we do, voters too often choose simply on the basis of name recognition or, at best, whichever panderer, demagogue, or mudslinger is most persuasive in last minute TV commercials.
We are rather pathetic, really, but nothing is going to change until citizens start paying attention, develop a memory, and exercise our franchise seriously, intelligently, and unfailingly. If we picked a new crop every time, the current bunch could keep working while the wanabes did the campaigning, and the special interests wouldn’t be so willing to invest big bucks to buy one.
I am an independent swing voter and becoming increasingly disgusted with both caucuses of the Incumbrepublocrat Party. We used to laugh at the notion that the Soviet Union only had one political party and their citizens were only allowed to choose from a slate of competing Communist Party members. Their candidates might differ over how best to achieve the Party’s goals, but Communism itself was not permitted to be questioned.
At this point, I truly fail to see the difference. Communists and Incumbrepublocrats are single parties consisting of nominal left/liberal and right/conservative caucuses. The only real difference between the caucuses is a minor disagreement over how much of our money to confiscate, and where best to spend it to buy votes. It seems that all they really care about is getting reelected. Even their lust for majority status, for which they will forsake all principles, is all about better office space and committee positions from which to shovel reelection pork, rather than anything ideological. Most politicians would switch sides in a heartbeat if that is what it took to get reelected.
Liberal New England Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats prove life is not about ideology for these critters. If Ted Kennedy decided he wanted to change sides, the Republican caucus would welcome him with praise, open arms, and instantly forgive his malodorous past. If Carl Rove decided to become a Democrat, they would kiss his feet and nominate him Hilary’s Vice President, if he would dish the dirt on Republicans in campaign ads for them, to help her get elected.
I am sick of their pandering, demagogy, and mudslinging. The abject hypocrisy they all demonstrate, in the amazing contortions required to keep their coalitions of competing special interests cobbled to their “base,” would be amusing if it were not so pathetic. How so many otherwise intelligent adults could be so utterly unprincipled is beyond me, but then I could never be a politician. They must be very careful. If they ever allow a viable third party to get a foothold, it could become the majority party overnight.
Politicians long ago distorted our Republic into a democracy, and rather than act as our Representatives, they demand the mantle of "Leaders." They may have need of caucus leaders to tell them what to think and do, but they would be surprised at how many of us in Flyover Country aren’t in the least interested in their leadership ability. We want to hire Representatives of OUR desires and culture to protect our interests, not “leaders” trying to tell us what we are permitted think, say, want, and do.
More and more of us are awakening to the realization that a democracy is like two wolves and a lamb discussing what to have for breakfast. The elections, which are so much the focal point of their petty lives, are little more than an auction in advance of soon-to-be-stolen-goods, and they wonder why so few potential buyers bother to attend.
“Vote for me, and I promise to steal from the rich, and/or mortgage your grandchildren’s future, to provide loyal constituents a cornucopia of 'free' government ‘benefits,’ and hometown pork projects.” They call it voter apathy, yet more citizens every year are noticing how incompetent, insignificant, and irrelevant Federal politicians are to our lives, and are voting “none of the above” by the simple expedient of boycotting their auction.
Unfortunately, these professional politicians have rigged the system so that it is almost impossible for an independent or third-party candidate to be elected to national office. The advantages of incumbency have been so institutionalized that there are only a handful of nominally competitive races every two years, and most of those are the result of incumbents retiring. Like the Communist Party of the old Soviet Union, it is probably going to take a cataclysmic collapse of the system before the Incumbrepublocrats ever permit the political reform required to save our culture and country.
I have been toying with some ideas about how we could do some real mischief to their system with strategic “swing voting,” so stay tuned until I get them written down. In the meantime, even the threat of their “base” not showing up at the next election, much less voting for their opponent, is about all the leverage we have over politicians. Let’s use it to the fullest to force them to SECURE OUR BORDERS FIRST. -Dave
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