Our atrophied politics.

US politics are almost entirely a referendum on expanding, modifying, limiting or otherwise endorsing programs put in place by Congress between 1933 and 1936, during President Roosevelt's first term, a body of collectivist twaddle called the New Deal.^[1]

Yet again, we head into another presidential campaign in which a nation of over 300,000,000 people has managed to lift into the arena only the thinnest slate of candidates. Each candidate has some admirable qualities (grasp of public policy, military service, sensitivity to the illegal immigration invasion, debating skill, managerial skill, character, courage, or the ability to pronounce "Koran" correctly and wear slacks with knife creases). Some might qualify for the "A" list but missing from the selection process is, well, the "A" list. I mean a substantial one populated by men and women of character, judgment, achievement, practical experience, erudition, and military service.

Why do we accept such a flawed process whereby 300,000,000 people can only manage such a limited field? Sarah Palin is an authentic original and an All-American fighter to boot but she passed up an attempt this time around to our loss.

Never mind quality, how about simple quantity? As the joke goes, How come we only get two choices for president but 57 contestants in the Miss America Pageant?

All of which is a long way around to get to Remus's point about what our elections are really about. Not only don't we get large numbers of solid men and women to stand for office, we also don't get campaigns that discuss the really big issues. As Lawrence Auster has observed:

The greatest transformation of a society in history, the relegation of whites to minority status in their own country, and no one talks about it, let alone opposes it.

And that's just one issue. And forget anything like real debate between the candidates. The "debates" are moderated by some leftist network putz with a list of questions supplied by Debbie Waspherman-Schultz, and we swoon over the alpha dog candidate who breaks out of the pack to declare his support for mashed potatoes and gravy on the federal school lunch menu.

No. What matters to voters in U.S. elections is making sure that they get

• a cut of the tax money being doled out,
  
• regulations that hamper their competitors,
  
• higher taxes on the other guy, and
  
• lower taxes on themselves.

And if China wants to build up its missile force and blue water navy, Iran wants to acquire nukes, and Muslim subversives want to jam shariah and "@#$% you" street prayers down oar throats, well, what is that to us?

Notes
^[1] "Pre-New Deal America." By Remus, Woodpile Report 237 , 10/10/11 (page expires eventually).