Can you believe it is October already? Ten months into the year and I haven’t written a political column yet.
Oh, I commented briefly in July, but that was mostly to remind everyone to vote in August at the primary, which has turned out to have been more of a joke than an election. If anything makes one think about rank choice voting, pro or con, that election and the subsequent fiasco should be it. Either “oh yeah! That’s the way it’s supposed to work” or “You’ve got to be kidding!”
I wrote about the Beatles and then T.S. Eliot during the first of the year when the Alaska Legislature was in session. Anything to keep from commenting on what was not getting done. And there was always the everlasting Rep vs. Dem game of tag. The same one we’ve been playing for almost 10 years. But who’s counting?
Our political season goes on way too long. The day after an election the losing side is gearing up for the next election with no time to even settle in and get a grip on the elected regime’s game plan. I blame it on TV.
Back in the beginning of time, when I was a kid, the conventions would come on the radio, interrupting programming for a couple of weeks in the summer every four years. I hated it, but my mom listened faithfully to both Republicans and Democrats.
The rest of the year there was very little political argument on the radio. The newsmen were real journalists: Sam Hays, Edward R. Murrow, Walter Winchell, Paul Harvey, David Brinkley. They presented the news, no opinion. If there were two sides, you got them both without elaboration. I’m sure there was dissent. What group of men (yes, back then it was mostly men) could get together to run anything without some argument? But when it was presented to the public, it was offered as two sides to a story, and usually with a compromise.
A few of you older readers may have been offered journalism as a high school elective. The core of the curriculum was that your opinion did not count. You were there to report what happened. No opinion, no embellishment, no diversion and word choice is important.
Reporters today simply parrot what they are told, often they even use the same words: “Existential threat” has become tiresome, and they sound like they are so proud of knowing a word with more than four letters.
But “word salad” isn’t any better, sounding just the opposite. I watch several different news programs, hoping to get a feel for both sides so I can frame a decision. After watching two or three where the reporters all say the same thing word for word, it is apparent I could watch one and get the opinion for all on that side. The other side is at least more original with their approach. Like maybe Chet Huntley taught their journalism class.
All that prologue to get to the main point here. We just came off the vote for seats in local government. In a little more than three weeks we will be voting again for state and national legislators and for president. There are also two ballot measures to be voted on and judges.
The ballots are rank choice voting format. Believe it on not there are eight candidates for president. I recognized three names: Trump, Harris and Kennedy, who has dropped out but remains on the Alaska ballot for whatever reason. Considering our last adventure with RCV, Alaska may spend its electoral votes on some unknown from wherever rather than where they count, whatever your persuasion.
Ballot Measure 1 is whether the minimum wage should be raised, mandated paid sick leave, and no required religious or union meetings at work. Unfortunately, the voter may be for one of the issues and not the others, so voting yes or no could be self-defeating.
Ballot Measure 2 is to get rid of rank choice voting, and is one of those yes means no votes. Yes if you want to get rid of it. No if you want to keep it. And the judges are simply a yes or no vote.
As I write this, we could be voting for the Fat Bear in Katmai Park Maybe some of you have. Even there, this year, they had controversy when one contestant killed another. Probably that didn’t have anything to do with the actual contest between the bears, but caused a minor disturbance with the politicians running it. That may be a message we need to consider.
Be sure to get out to vote on Nov. 5!
