out of left field

The other day for some reason I looked in on Dennis Kucinich's campaign site, wondering just what the little homonculus stood for (a cruel description, I know, but he smiles too damn much for me, and it kind of creeps me out). Would you like to know just what kind of a wacko Kucinich is? Well here's his list:

1. Universal Health Care
2. International Cooperation: US out of Iraq, UN in
3. Jobs and Withdrawal from NAFTA and WTO
4. Repeal of the "Patriot Act"
5. Guaranteed Quality Education, Pre-K Through College
6. Full Social Security Benefits at Age 65
7. Right-to-Choose, Privacy and Civil Rights
8. Balance Between Workers and Corporations
9. Environmental Renewal and Clean Energy
10. Restored Rural Communities and Family Farms

This is the agenda of one of the most radical candidates on the Democratic side??? Would you like to see what the Democrats wanted in 1956? Or the Republicans?
Better yet, check out the Democrats in 1908 (the more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?). And how about Teddy Roosevelt and the Republican party:

The great accomplishments of President Roosevelt have been, first and foremost, a brave and impartial enforcement of the law, the prosecution of illegal trusts and monopolies, the exposure and punishment of evil-doers in the public service; the more effective regulation of the rates and service of the great transportation lines; the complete overthrow of preferences, rebates and discriminations; the arbitration of labor disputes; the amelioration of the condition of wage-workers everywhere; the conservation of the natural resources of the country; the forward step in the improvement of the inland waterways; and always the earnest support and defence of every wholesome safeguard which has made more secure the guarantees of life, liberty and property.

That was not today's Republican party. Hell, it's not even today's Democratic Party.

Want to know what the Socialists in this country want:

Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives.

Crazy, huh? No, not really. You want crazy, try some of the folks on this page (scroll down past the Big Boys), where you'll find Nazis, hippies, Franco-ite fascist Christians, and the marijuana party.

Of course, all this tells you is what each of the parties is/was saying about themselves, which isnt quite reality. No, strike that, it isnt reality, period.

Do I have a point? No, not really. It just seems to me that how people feel about candidates, and what the candidates and parties say about themselves and each other is completely irrelevant to anything that actually goes on. So how do we choose them? And why?
Let's look at Kucinich again. Is there anything on that agenda that is really nuts, or a threat to national security, or national well-being? As far as normal people are concerned, I mean, not as people like Dick Cheney would say. No, there's not (okay, Americans dont seem to get the universal health-care thing, but we're stupid). Some of the things he calls for I'd even consider to be generally conservative/Republican ideas (like numbers 8 or 10).

It's a beauty contest folks. We dont pick them because we like their ideas, we pick them because we like them. When you come right down to it, the anti-abortion crowd is actually more intellectually honest than most of us, because they at least vote according to one issue, regardless of what a shitheel the candidate may be otherwise. I dont think that most Americans can even muster that.

Or maybe not. This post is a bit of a wash, frankly, but I'm done with it anyway.

Goodnight.