David Foster over at Chicago Boyz passes on the observation by Bill Ackman that an election is not like a marriage, however much we might feel that electing someone has the same exclusivity and persistence in out lives. We do not have a universe of choices, so that we may indulge ourselves and focus on whether we like the person, respect them, or believe we could have a beer or a cup of tea with them. We have two choices, at most three in an American election.
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Not A Marriage
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3 comments:
Two choices, and the matchmakers offering them aren't that interested in your happiness.
One of the commenters there also adds "We have to remember that a President is not a King. He leads the Executive department, charged with putting the decisions of Congress into effect."
In my years living abroad I often found myself responding to "I don't understand why the US president doesn't just . . . " conversations by explaining that the US president has power that is constrained in comparison to a typical prime-minister –– and even when the president's party controls one or both houses of Congress he not necessarily going to be able to enact his preferred policies. The US president is in no position to enforce party discipline, unless by popularity (or calling in favors) they happen to be that persuasive.
I remain baffled by self-described "undecided" voters this late in the election season. Are they really people who don't want to admit they're not going to vote? Are they going to flip a coin at the last minute? Do they just like the attention that playing hard-to-get yields? I have the same issue with voting for a fringe third-party candidate: unless I were awfully sure which real candidate that would favor, I would consider myself civically equal to a non-voter.
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