[Newsbot]

Filibuster Cartoons
Title: The dream candidate (click to view)
Date: June 19, 2010
Have you heard the bizarre story of Alvin Green yet? He's some guy — literally, just some guy — who won the nomination to be the Democratic candidate for Senator in the state of South Carolina. Green is an unemployed African-American who lives with his father in a run-down bungalow. He's a former (and very undistinguished) solider, but other than that he doesn't seem to have done a whole lot of anything with his life.

Though I suppose his upset victory in the Senate primary, in which he displaced an incumbent House member presumed to be a shoo-in, could be seen as a true Jacksonian victory of the "common man" against establishment politics, the overwhelming reaction to Mr. Green's win has been anything but warm. The fact that Green is a little, uh, "slow," to put it mildly, has sent many leading South Carolina Democrats into a tizzy of outrage and suspicion. Conspiracy theories abound, ranging from charges of broken voting machines to some grand right-wing plot to purposely install the dumbest possible candidate to hurt the Democratic ticket.

Personally, I think his victory just highlights just how hypocritical most of us are when it comes to picking political candidates. Almost everyone claims they don't want a government dominated by the rich and well-connected, but in practice, few people would want to vote for a candidate with absolutely no wealth or status, because that person would be such a loser.

[GreenTiger]

It's just more of an indication of what the American electorate thinks of incumbents.

[commanderkai]

I liked the last little box with the word "Rednecks" haha. Just seems like no doubt a lot of people thought that whenever a state is mentioned below the Mason-Dixon line

[Marcus_Ozius]

It's almost never "The People" who start anything. It's the would be's, the could have been's; it's the people who just KNOW they should have made it but for barrier X, a hideous thing which must be destroyed for the good of all mankind. Electing one of the people is a gesture about as futile as electing an elite. What we need is more than a new congress, we need a new attitude towards governance.

[Voyager]

What is hilarious about the Al Green, is that he won 60% of the vote, and he never even campaigned. He just popped up, paid his registration fee, and then disappeared until after the election.

The speculation is he won because neither of them had any name recognition, and his name was first on the ballot. I've also heard speculation that his opponent's incessant robo-calls may have pissed people off.

What makes it even funnier is that there is almost not chance either of them is going to be the republican incumbent this cycle, so they are effectively fighting tooth and nail over the chance to be demolished in the fall.

[Issyl]

Agh!

You hit the nail on the head, yet again.

Nice job.

[Psudo]

Quote:

he does have one thing Rawl doesn't have: In the grand tradition of legendary Democrats such as Teddy Kennedy, Greene has a felony arrest.
[...]
The key to Greene's victory, you see, is that he got more votes. How do liberals imagine Republicans pulled that off? Mesmerize the Democrats into voting for an idiot? If Republicans could do that, John McCain would be president.

heh heh heh

[Crosshair]

Newsbot wrote:

Filibuster CartoonsPersonally, I think his victory just highlights just how hypocritical most of us are when it comes to picking political candidates. Almost everyone claims they don't want a government dominated by the rich and well-connected, but in practice, few people would want to vote for a candidate with absolutely no wealth or status, because that person would be such a loser.

I think it is more along the lines of wanting something in the middle. We don't want someone who has bought their way into power. On the other hand, we don't want someone who has a hard time reading "My Pet Goat".

What we want are people along the lines of Rand Paul or Peter Schiff. People who are intelligent and who view serving in the House/Senate the same way most people look at serving in the military. You're in for a few years, then you leave and go back to civilian life. People who are not looking to spend 30 years in the House/Senate.

Sure they aren't perfect, but who is?

Chris Dodd hasn't spent a day in the private sector. (Certainly not in the past 30 years.) He has never ran a business. He has no idea how the regulations he passes are negatively affecting businesses and workers for little to no benefit. People like Dodd make the bed knowing full well that they are never going to have to sleep in it. We want people who know that they are going to have to LIVE under the rules they create, sleep in the bed that they have made. Only then will they be careful with how the bed is made.

I personally love Rand Paul's idea of inserting a clause into every Federal contract over $1 million saying that the recipient of the contract will not lobby congress during the duration of the contract. A simple and constitutional way of solving a large part of the "lobbyist problem". It's ideas like that that and the people that propose them that we want.

[Marcus_Ozius]

This makes more sense than anything I've heard in a long time.

[Pseudonym]

What can I say? I love my state.

[Teikiatsu]

Voyager wrote:

What is hilarious about the Al Green, is that he won 60% of the vote, and he never even campaigned. He just popped up, paid his registration fee, and then disappeared until after the election.

This.

No campaigning, no speeches, no town halls, no door-to-doors, no nothing. Literally nothing. He spent no money besides registering as a candidate. He stayed in his mom's basement.

Only 100,000 South Carolina Democrats voted, give or take. If anything the South Carolina Democrats should be pissed/worried that their electorate didn't show up. This to me underlines to me the apathy of the Democrat voter and the desire to get away from the mainstream Democrat party. November elections are still looking like a bloodbath for them.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Geez, sounds like the new Canadian show "Dan for Mayor".

[Calbeck]

I seriously want Greene to win. I understand perfectly well that he is not a professional, not polished, not a Harvard or Yale grad, and many other things he is not.

Amongst these, and most critically important: he is not a member of the "Good Ole Boys' Club" which is the core of so much of the rot infesting American politics.

And for that alone, I wish him well.

[N_Fiddledog]

Something not mentioned in the little bio above is he's up on a felony charge. Apparently he tried to get some girl to watch porno, or something.

Other theories as to why people might have clicked his box in the primary Democrat election.

People confused him with this guy...



The extra "E" in Greene led black voters to think of him as being black.

Alphabetically his was the first name on the ballot.

Democrats are dumb.

[Zipperfish]

Crosshair wrote:

We want people who know that they are going to have to LIVE under the rules they create, sleep in the bed that they have made. Only then will they be careful with how the bed is made.

Speak for yourself! Regulators are supposed to act on behalf of the people, not just businesses. You are saying that the regulated community should manage themselves. When an industry regulates itself, it puts itself in a conflict of ionertest. They are supposed to maximize their profits and consider the needs of teh public. In practice what happenes is that the public resources end up subsidiary to the private ones; profits are privatized and costs are socialized.