The Jessaverse | Change and Exchange

Finding the right politicians to vote for next year has become increasingly difficult this year, especially when the zeitgeist of the early 2000s seems to be one of higher-profile politicians trying to pander to the extreme ends of the left- and right-wing spectrum rather than to the centre, as Bill Clinton and other politicians have tried to do back in 1994. On the Republican side, socially-liberal but economic conservatives are jettisoned in favour of the ‘family-values’ crowd, and for the Democrats, little to no attention is paid to centrists or populists. I’ve mentioned my politics before, and it’s rather difficult to find candidates for any position that seem to resonate with me. The Democrats are too protectionist for me economically, and the Republican party line seems to emphasise ‘traditional family values’ that seem to just malign social minorities and promote social regressivism. There isn’t a strong party that supports -mostly- free economics (with some regulation to protect work abuses and ‘bootstrap’ social programmes) and social liberalism right now.

In addition, the 2006 and 2008 elections will be pretty interesting to follow, as both the Republicans and Democrats are currently having a lot of issues with their party leadership and visions. In the case of the Republicans, people are pretty pissed off at them right now for their mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, the Valerie Plame affair and the current Tom DeLay brouhaha. In the case of the Democrats, they are in a morass of confusion and haven’t chosen a consistent ideology, choosing instead to use the Republicans as a punching-bag. It will be interesting to see if some ‘renegade’ politicians decide that they’re fed up with business-as-usual and the centre gets more attention after the current emphasis on extremism.