Nice manipulation
For the last 12 years Wash has used a top-two system for its primary "elections". When this began, I was curious to see if it would change anything. I sort of hoped it would make life easier for true independents, if such creatures actually exist. In fact it didn't make much difference. The "two" "parties" still ended up "opposing" each other in the general "election".

This year it's clear that Deepstate is making good use of the system.

Here's the governor column of today's primary ballot:



This has never happened before. In previous years the primary had three or four reliable extras outside the "two" parties, perpetual candidates who enjoyed the game.

Now we have (I think) 35 candidates. Good old Goodspaceguy is still there. Three of the Repooflicans (Eyman, Freed, Culp) are serious with significant support. The others are new and meaningless.

The tactic is clear. Inslee has been slaughtering everyone in the state except himself and Bezos. Seattle enjoys being tortured with suicide ballgags, but doesn't enjoy being beaten by uncontrolled rioters. The rest of the state hates starvation and imprisonment and unemployment and torture. Something for everyone!

With so much dislike, it's theoretically conceivable that one of the other Ds might get on the ballot "opposing" Inslee, offering a palatable "choice" to Seattle. So it was necessary to clutter and confuse the space with dozens of meaningless names.

I "chose" Culp, the most serious and persistent of the Repoofs. I have no illusions that "elections" matter, but I still enjoy registering a sort of survey answer, for the sake of those Martian archeologists who might be interested in how Earth committed suicide. And I've shown it here as part of my overall futile push for opening up secrets.

Labels: Entertainment

  ¶ 8:34 AM