From: mulac@daystrom.lerc.nasa.gov (Richard Mulac)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections
Subject: Why I can't stand the Democratic party
Date: 6 Oct 92 17:32:00 GMT
Followup-To: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections
Distribution: usa
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center [Cleveland, Ohio]


  Over the last few months I've written several posts ragging on Governor
Clinton and I'd like take a moment to explain my opinions.  I have lived my
entire life in an area which is predominantly Democratic, blue collar, and
ethnically diverse.  I have not had much experience with the Republicans
locally, since it is rare that one is elected to a local, state, or
national office from here.  Since becoming of voting age, I have gained
much experience from the Democratic party and how it solicits votes from
the public.  Before every major election the local Democratic party sells
"cheap" (1$) tickets to thousands of prospective voters for admission to a
"meet the candidates" party.  Several of these are held around the county,
with tens of thousands of people attending.  For your 1$ you get all the
beer you can drink and a couple of (hot dogs, kielbasi sandwiches, corned
beef sandwiches - fill in the ethnic group you're catering to's favorite
food).  To recoup the cost of the beer and food, "legal" gambling (instant
bingo, etc.) is pushed throughout the night, while local policemen maintain
security by watching over the crowd.  As the alchohol makes the
crowd more maleable, hit men move through the crowd asking for campaign
donations.  Around midnight the local, state, or national candidate shows
up, says hi, tells everyone to vote for him (or her), and leaves.  No talk
of his experience, record, or his stand on the issues.  The ironic thing
was that as teenagers we'd go to these things as a cheap form of
entertainment and then vote Republican.
  Now the Republicans may be just as corrupting, but somehow I find the
"I'll support you if you protect my interests" stand taken by the
Republicans to be less distastefull than buying the votes of poor slobs
with a couple of cheap beers.  They're holding these rallies for Clinton
now, trying to project him to the mass of voters around here as someone who
is just like them, someone who could be your "best drinking buddy".
One of the things I really can't stand about Clinton (and it may seem
trivial to you) is the subtle mind games he plays with locals, trying to 
persuade them that he's one of them.  For example, when Clinton was in Ohio,
he made sure he was wearing his Cleveland Indians baseball cap.  At a
later stop in Michigan he's wearing a Detroit Tigers cap.  Are the voters
really that stupid that they'll allow a candidate to subtlely influence
them and get away with it?  Jerry Brown pulled the same stunt during the
primaries, wearing a union jacket at a labor rally and an AIDS pin at some
Greenwich Village rally, but making sure he never wore both together at either
place.  Maybe the Republicans deserve just as much cynicism, but either way
the real "change" that this country needs is a change in the way the
majority of people address their responsibility as voters.

-- 
Richard Mulac                                     mulac@daystrom.lerc.nasa.gov
NASA Lewis Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road, MS 5-9, Cleveland, OH  44135
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"Well, judging by his outlandish attire, he's some sort | These pontifications
of free-thinking anarchist." - Charles Montgomery Burns |      are my own!    
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections