Statecraft Informer

Since writing in the editorial “we” is a “royal” pain sometimes, sometimes I just won’t do it. This is one of those times.

I live in Pacifica, California. It’s a rather quiet, coastal community just south of San Francisco. Cobbled together almost fifty years ago from various existing enclaves along Highway 1, Pacifica is an incorporated city whose populace incorporates only two main schools of thought: Pro or Anti development.

As recorded every Wednesday in the “Pacifica Tribune,” citizens communicate with each other via letters to the editor. Often, this seems to be the only “dialogue” occurring between the two camps. (Pro and Anti development folks are also spotted wearing other “opposite” hats, depending upon the issue at hand.)

Admittedly, I often feel very strongly both ways

But dedicated readers of www.statecraftinformer.com know I DO feel strongly about one thing in particular: The two party system in America is broken.

Regardless of which is on top at the moment, elephants and donkeys, Republicans and Democrats, are more or less the same in effect. Oh, there are one or two examples of genuine difference between the two, a la Pacifica’s Anti and Pro development groups, but in practice, there seems to be an undertow of money and influence from which neither can escape.

Since neither is capable of wrenching free from those corrupting influences, I believe this country really needs a viable alternative; a new third party. We need a new banner (not to mention mascot!) around which to rally, and a new organization about which we can feel proud to be a part.

The seventh of November has come and gone, and by all accounts, my position didn’t exactly gain a lot of traction around the nation. Statistics haven’t indicated a groundswell of activity behind the establishment of a new third party. To a certain extent, all the various independent and “other” parties did about as well as is usual for them, and there is something to be said for that. (I may have just said it.)

In retrospect, what I was really calling for this time around, and with such short notice, after all, was that folks consider voting (assuming they WERE voting) for anyone they thought qualified to hold office, as long as they were not Democrats or Republicans. Ah, if only “independent” voters actually voted “independently,” the powers that be in Washington might actually look up long enough from their fundraisers to see into the eyes of actual American citizens.

At least this time around, that was not to be, and business as usual is now commencing in Washington, and you can almost see the relief in the faces of politicos and talking heads around the nation.

Imagine my surprise then, while reading the anti and pro development ventings which have consumed acres of trees in recent weeks, to find the following letter tucked in between in Letters To The Editor, “Pacifica Tribune,” November 15, 2006:

So…

Editor:

So, the Republicans basically wasted away 12 years and ended up out-Democrating the Democrats and also allowed the Democrats to block just about every attempt at significant change they tried to implement. And the winner is? You? Me? No, the status quo wins regardless of who won this election.

After a dozen years of this farce called the “Republican Revolution”, the electorate gets fed up with their spineless ineptitude (and rightfully so) but they do what? They hand everything back to the Democrats. How smart is that? Like the Democrats have somehow gotten better since they and Clinton had control? It’s still the same buncha yahoos in that party, too. They haven’t changed. In fact if anything, they’ve gotten worse; more partisan, more bitter, more hateful, more spiteful, more vengeful, more anti-American and more, well, obnoxious and irritating (think Air America). And the Republicans? Well, “Keystone Cops” and “The Three Stooges” comes to mind. But they were funny, the Republicans are not.

Republicans and Democrats; it’s like a football game where both teams keep having their turn with the ball after each fourth down punt, but even though they gain and lose yardage, nobody ever scores a touchdown and, agonizingly for us, there’s no clock running to end the game.

That’s why I finally got fed up this past summer and re-registered as a “Decline to state” and voted for candidates other than “D” and “R” this time wherever I could. If more people would do that, give their votes to anybody but a “D” or an “R”, we might actually affect change. But until then it’s gonna be the same old same old, handing things back and forth between two sets of gamers who are playing us against each other, one set being criminally inept morons, the other set being deviously evil tricksters. You can take your pick as to which is which. They’re interchangeable.

If you see me on the streets, say “Hi”. I’ll be the one wearing the t-shirt that says “Our lives are in the hands of morons and crooks, and we ain’t voting our way out of this”.

Steve Hajnal

Pedro Point

I would like to point out that, although a fellow Pacifican, I do not know Mr. Hajnal. As far as I know, we’ve never met, and I have no reason to believe he is familiar with statecraftinformer.

But there it was, and is, in black and white. Another human being has reached the same conclusion as this humble writer. We may express ourselves in our own inimitable fashions, but our insight is as one.

All is not lost.

If a one other Pacifican sees what needs to be done, perhaps there are more. And if there are other Pacificans, why then not like-minded folks in Daly City, Burlingame, Moss Beach, San Mateo, Redwood City or Palo Alto. And if in the suburbs, why not the very streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago or New York?

Perhaps, all we really need is a mascot!!

C’mon, people, let’s get busy!

Way to go, Steve!!