This post is causing me nothing but grief. I want to write about politics without immediately diving into parody, but every time I set the words down they refuse to lay quietly.
Like so many, I’m politically homeless. This much was established in my
Brexit confessional. My earliest political influence, not counting the guff they stuffed into my head in school and
on TV, was Howard Zinn. He was followed by Gore Vidal, Noam Chompsky (admittedly more skimmed than read), and various others of that illustrious ilk. I've been happy to consider myself a creature of the left for most of my life.
Newsflash: good ideas can come from
any direction, including
The American Conservative and normally hard hearted libertarians.
My voting record:
1992 - Bill Clinton, alas
1996 - Nobody; was between countries
2000 - Ralph Nader, no alas about it
2003 - As a newly minted UK citizen, I voted Green and/or Lib Dem from time to time
2004 -
Kerry, who as a bonus wasn't Bush
2008 - Obama and very happy to. Was in Austin that night feeling high as a kite. Part of me of course knew he wasn't the 2nd coming, but the fact that this was actually happening was enough.
2012 - Nobody, because incredibly disappointed with Obama
2016 - Nobody, but privately wanted Trump to win because I was so hacked off with everything, making me a secret
deplorable2019 - Conservative. I might've voted Labour if Corbyn showed the backbone he obviously possesses, and hadn't gone mad with the promises.
2020 - Nobody, or at least nobody electable, into the foreseeable future. Has divide and conquer won? Am I just done? Republicans are largely too far gone, Dems are
warmongers and deceptively tolerant. How can I endorse either?
2019 would have been inconceivable to a slightly
younger me, despite the fact that the only time we've ever been personally helped by a politician it was a Conservative, who chased up our applications for citizenship with the Home Office.
Basically I believe in the power of the state to do good, but think that too often it does the opposite, which brings me uncomfortably close to
Reagan... The current situation with UK housing is
an example. We need a land value tax and a mass deprogramming. Who’s going to help bring that about, hmmm?
O holy house price inflationMaybe the Greens, but along with the
Lib Dems they now
embrace the irrational a bit too tightly for comfort.
Sir Keir Starmer reliably annoys. No self-respecting Labour politician should go around with a Sir in front of his name, for a start. Third Way Wrong Way Blair almost destroyed the brand (and unfortunately has been resurrected in the cadence and intonation of
dishi Rishi). I don't pay enough attention to Starmer as I probably should. It took my wife pointing out
his response to the budget to make me sit up and say hmmm. Maybe. We'll see.
Meanwhile I'm going to revert to my default position: politicians and voters are but a means to an end to each other.
