Bears of little brains...

On 09/07/2012 11:48 AM, Mike Cullen wrote:

We live in the state where

Mike: you're going to confuse people of little minds. We live "in the *condition* in which..." It is not a geographic thing. It is an intellectual thing. And if one has no intellect, no neocortex, then it is irrelevant. Have another can of beer. Burp...

 marginalized by tribal leaders.

Brilliant: AOH, 5th ward, good ol' boys

relies on hitting home runs.

and snappy little sound bites. A recent sound bite by a recently acquainted journalist has her saying "we are entertainers as well as informers"...

 little accountability

unless Guido is your friend. But by all accounts Guido has been out of work since around 1993. Thank you Mr. Cianci...

Even then, the losing or convicted incumbent

Ayup.

Some see the quick elixir as term limits

But don't you see? All the citations you have given above are *precisely* the manifestations of the *absence* of term limits.

People get in, with the aid of the good ol boys or Guido or the AOH or other "tribal leaders" and then, like your reinforced concrete runways, you can't get rid of them with anything less than a nuclear bomb. 

Or another Guido.

(Is Guido a Second Amendment right? ... But I digress...) 

but this only constrains the supply side.

No. You are mistaken: term limits *liberate* and *extend* the supply side.

Term limits empower the smart individual to participate without a sense of hopelessness.

And they threaten and intimidate the incumbent: they keep his eye on the ball for his own credibility and ethical reputation (so better to be a consultant, not a lobbyist, thereafter). They give him the courage (as the military are given) to do exactly the right thing and be the best that they can be: "You are expendable, so have nothing to lose: just get out there and give it your best."

But if you are in debt to Guido, the AOH, and the tribal leaders then you can't do that. Nor can you if you aspire to be a suckerupper. Oops, sorry, lobbyist.

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As it is, anyone with half a brain (well, at least above the 80th percentile of the bell shaped curve) knows that it is virtually hopeless to actually participate in politics with conviction and integrity *because you cannot have an effect* other than irritating others.

(Ooops, gosh, what does that say about the conviction, integrity, and intellect of the incumbents? ... Mmm. Gosh, sorry. but so be it, the cat's out of the bag, bridge under the water, so to speak, :-), so let's just carry on...)

So they direct their efforts elsewhere unless desperate for a job. Thanks to Steven Covey...

So the only answer is to always vote against the incumbent, no matter who they are, since that is the only way to break the stranglehold that incumbency has on the intellect of this country and shall continue so to do until term limits are in place.

why a broader base of citizens are not running for public office?

Precisely because of the *absence* of term limits.

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Since I *shall soon be out of work (thank you dear Congress and Mr. President, all of whom I blame; I haven't been fired, there is just no money left to pay me) I DID apply for the City Manager position, but TPTB decided Ms. Howington more qualified. So be it.

I DID then consider running for City Council but was too busy doing real work to get around to trying to be a politician until the deadline for filing was past.

But even if those had not been the case, I still would have faced the foregoing problems of "tribal leaders", as you say.

One *can get around this condition, but perhaps not in this state, without extremely courageously exercising your First, and if necessary Second, Amendment rights (and rites).

My younger friend Dan faced this exact type of exasperation in trying to break into the local dental surgery and anesthesiology world. He succeeded, but only with extreme courage and employment of those rights.

But this time next around, if I'm still desperate for a job I'll try again.

Thirty years of "got-mine+want-more-itis" seems to have caught up with us.

Ayup, and we get what we work for and deserve.

Apologies to anyone who can't read more than two paragraphs without another can of beer.

God bless them good ol' boys.


Burp.