Per the media, the elections we just had here in the United States were about two issues, ObamaCare, and the Government Shutdown. Per the media, because a website was slow, people in a single State decided to narrowly chose the Blue team over the Red team, with a small wedge showing up and choosing neither Red nor Blue.

In another State, per the Media, people chose the “moderate” candidate.

I would like to posit another option.

I think what the voters were saying this time was this:

If we are taking time out of our day to go and voice an opinion about the truly fucked-up state of things right now in which both sides throw obscene amounts of money away exaggerating each-other’s faults, we’d like to see some actual governance happening.

Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE has figured out right now that the main problem isn’t Government. Its the Media.

Why?

Well, who seems to not be interested in drilling down into any claims made by the candidates unless its a soundbite that can be exploited?

Who seems to be more interested in the emotional response a story can get, rather than doing the actual job of journalists, which is to provide information on points of interest, so that the public can make informed decisions?

Who directly benefits when candidates and third parties spend HUGE sums of money to refute the claims of the opposing party and benefits directly from the promotion of scandals?

Umm, yeah. The media.

So in Virginia, two under-qualified candidates ran for office.

One ran and was successful only because of their connections with the Democratic Party infrastructure, and in no small part because a political spoiler snatched away 6 percent of the vote that, had he not been in the race, likely would have sided with “The Cooch.” I’m hoping McCauliffe is a fast study in learning how to draft consensus in the face of unreasonable opposition, and has an ability to multi-task. The State he just won has a GovConomy which will directly be affected by the two week Government shutdown. Contractors will be missing an entire paycheck and are going to have to adjust for that missing money, which will ripple through the State’s economy during the very important 4th retail quarter. Yep –holiday spending is likely to take a hit this year.  There’s also the Silver Line project, the impending Commercial mortgage crisis, the increasing traffic problem, the power of the NRA keeps exerting over the ability of anyone to make reasonable decisions about a “well-regulated” militia, and the folks in the south and western parts of the State who seem to believe that they are neglected and ignored  while the revenue generators just outside of DC get all the attention and money.

Oh yeah, and the next ceiling crisis scheduled to hit Q1-2014, at an already generally economically depressed time of the year.

Then there’s Ken “The Cooch” Cuccinelli, whose two claims to fame were opposing the Federal Government’s ability to enact laws attempting to protect people from the encroachments and victimization of the powerful Insurance and Health Care lobby, and legislating against people’s right to have sex for the joy of having it in a way that doesn’t produce babies. Yep, he’s the guy who spent taxpayer money advocating potential Government intrusion into the orifices of your sexual partner. Cooch wondered why he got no support from his party on a State level. Well, when the Governor is busy trying to extricate from the political scandals that prevented Romney from selecting him as his running mate in favor of Dead-Eyes Ryan, and the Lt. Governor is solidly giving you the stink-eye because rather than wait your turn, and attempt to de-radicalize your legacy, you stepped on his dick, and pushed your agenda a few cycles early. Between those two problems and the fact that many people like oral and butt-sex, ummm, the Cooch was never getting that seat. The only reason he even got close is because a Government Contractor who was a major contributor to the Cuccinelli Campaign, managed to get a key contract working on the interface for “ObamaCare.”  The Busted-Website talking point was sexy enough for the lazy-ass media to jump on, along with the idea that people’s insurance was being cancelled (because it provided no coverage and the Insurance companies were using it as an opportunity to yet again gouge their customers. Obama didn’t cancel the insurance or attempt to gouge people. Its looking like the Insurance companies did. If the media bothered to dig a little further into those people who “lost coverage”, they’d actually see the reason their policies were cancelled is because they didn’t provide the minimum coverage an average person would need and that had they bothered to check the “Exchange”, a coverage that met the standard was available at a quarter of the price quoted by the pressure-filled letter customer’s received along with their cancellation notice. Let’s all thank Consumer Reports for doing the job that CBS News should have done had they not been so willing to needlessly sensationalize and scare their viewers.

Now I don’t know and can’t confirm whether it was intentional, but if you are a major Republican donor who objects to the Affordable Care Act, and the way the contract is written, if you don’t get your part of the job done, you actually stand to make more money fixing the broken system, what kind of impetus do you have to go ahead and complete the project on-time, on-budget, and successfully so that the law you oppose, and have demonstrated you oppose via your contributions, is proven to work?

Umm, my guess would be NO IMPETUS AT ALL.

So, Virginia, faced with the choice of slippery political operative, and religious line-jumping zealot, made their choice.

It would have been nice if Bolling actually had a chance to run. I’d be very curious to see what would have happened if an actual, qualified Moderate Republican (gasp) was allowed to run against the guy with little to no experience other than being good at fund-raising.

As a Liberal, some might see this last bit as a betrayal of my values. What some folks don’t realize about me would be this – real Liberals realize that the best ideas come from two reasonable parties coming to the table with their ideas, and actual negotiations and compromise happening. I don’t mean sitting and watching the Centrists drift between the extreme polls of the party. I don’t mean one side making demands and pushing its agenda, thus demonizing the other side of the table, because as political will has the tendency to swing like a pendulum, there will always be a chance for the demonized to get revenge, and an opportunity for the media to push just a little harder on that pendulum, as the extremes incite emotion, and emotion sells ads.