Saturday, January 12, 2008

Sophomoric to an End


Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of the Daily Kos urged his readers to vote for Mitt Romney in Michigan "we want Romney in, because the more Republican candidates we have fighting it out, trashing each other with negative ads and spending tons of money, the better it is for us. We want Mitt to stay in the race, and to do that, we need him to win in Michigan."

Zuniga has had his share of rants over the life of his popular blog. He's come up with all sorts of bizarre conspiracy theories since his flameout with Dean. In this case he has also shown at least a modicum of maturity by understanding that his proposal to trash the GOP primary in Michigan is not reasonable (in a follow up post). In a later post he offers a couple of reasons why he would make the suggestion. He finally makes the case that open primaries should be opposed and this is a way to help raise that point. That is baloney.

Kos makes the point in his follow up point "all's fair in politics. The stakes matter too much to unilaterally disarm." I guess it is my perception that a good deal of the distrust which Americans have for the entire political landscape is that too many politicos start from Kos's assumption and then occasionally step over the line. Kos is not advocating something which is illegal but it is clearly unethical and were he a real supporter of advancing our system, he would stay within reasonable bounds.

I'm not voting in the Michigan primary (I do not live there.) I am a "decline to state" in my registration and thus under my state's laws can vote in either primary. But when I enter the voting booth, I take my responsibilities seriously.

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