I'd Rather Watch Sausage Being Made....

     See history in the making?  You'd probably have more fun touring a sausage factory.  At least they have to hose the place out regularly and pass out free samples after the tour.

     We've got one major party political conventional done and another is running and from twenty thousand feet, I wish 'em all a good time.  Conventions these days are mostly rah-rah exercises in boosterism for the party faithful, and it keeps them out of trouble.

     If I was talking about politics seriously these days, I would have to spend endless hours explaining, yet again, that no, the U. S. Constitution says exactly zero about the nominating process.  Parties can pull their starting pitcher and send a reliever out right up, to, well, h'mm, the Constitution doesn't even mention a cut-off date.  The political parties and states have got rules about that, with an effective deadline at the end of August for ballot access to a sufficient number of states to have a chance of winning.  Up to the party conventions, it's wide open; afterwards, if there's an unexpected vacancy in their candidate for President or Vice-President, each party has ways of getting enough movers and shakers together to pick some poor sap who's acceptable to a majority of them and shove him or her onstage -- as long as they don't do it too late to ensure ballot access, which might get a little sticky.  So if any candidate, pundit or politician claims it's "unconstitutional" for the Democrats to replace President Biden with Vice-President Harris at the top of their ticket, laugh at 'em; they don't know what they are talking about.

     Likewise, complaints about "unfairness" over candidates, tactics, leaks, etc. are silly, preschoolers whining that they're not getting enough time in the sandbox.  It's politics; it's not especially "fair" and the throwing of dirt at one's opponents dates back to Thomas Jefferson and John Adams in the 1800 Presidential election.  Like parts of the sausage factory, it may not be especially nice to watch, but that's the process.

     I think this is an important election, possibly the kind of watershed moment historians point to afterward.  Living in boring times would be a lot nicer, if you ask me; I'd prefer an election in which we're mostly concerned about what the incoming Presidential spouse is going to do about holiday decorations and if the next President prefers fishing, golf or natural history for relaxation.  But that's not what we've got, and as long as the contenders stick to spirited debate with a side of mud-slinging and name-calling, I'm okay with it; we've seen what happens when a candidate doesn't stop there, and it wasn't good.