It's Not A Damn Horse Race

     Efforts to maintain -- or at least portray -- impartiality and balance can lead to some strange twists in coverage of political news, especially at the Presidential level.

     Even the most fair-minded and dispassionate reporter* gets drawn into the sense of drama, wanting to see,

     "Two households, both alike in dignity,
     In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
     From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
     Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean."

     Don't hold your breath waiting for the Bard to write the political ads.  The candidates kids are all grown up and mostly married, and no "pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life" to "with their death bury their parents' strife." Ain't gonna happen.  Nor are the two houses the same.  With three and a half years age difference, the frontrunners are a couple of old guys, and however they are right now, they'll both be a day older tomorrow.  Both of them get words wrong, confuse the names of public figures and generally show their years.  But only one of them sat idly by in the White House while a mob broke into and trashed the Capitol building, putting Congress and his own Vice-President to flight, and may have been directly involved in various plots to overthrow the election.  There's no contest; you don't give the guy who punched the Rebublic in the nose a second chance to try for a knockout.

     In Congress, far too many states and districts have picked for drama, for the most fiery campaign talk, for the most fervent loyalty to their Big Man, and what's it got us?  The 118th Congress was historically, spectacularly ineffective and the 119th bids to be more of the same, while the fuse of Ukraine burns steadily towards Europe and the world.  Too many in the Federal legislature are proud of shoving a stick in the spokes.  The big drama thrillride candidates?  We've tried 'em.  They don't work, in the most literal of senses.

     Given a choice of dodderers in the Executive -- and that's all we've got -- I'll go with the one that doesn't dabble in coups.  Given a choice of Congresspeople, I'll try to find the ones who aren't there for the LOLs and likes.  The Press and public can keep their drama.  The thing about a horse race is, at the end, you're mostly left looking at the back ends of horses.
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* Wherever the last few of the breed linger, the windswept high plains of Minot or the wilds of Cheektowaga, studied closely even as they dwindle.