Buh Bye
What a sham, I mean shame. George Soros is 'leaving' politics. Taking the high road, he claims he's interested in policy, not politics. Well, policy is made through politics. It's a distinction made to make one seem high minded when one is not. Politics is messy, nasty, and frustrating. You never get everything you want. Sometimes you feel you are Sisyphus, always pushing uphill. But without it, policy never changes.
As for Soros, he blew in, blew millions, and is blowing out. The more I'm around politics, the more I see that nothing is for the short term. To change anything requires a long-term effort. I don't agree with Soros's policy aims, so his departure does not disappoint me. But I chuckle at the uber-rich politics-as-hobby crowd. There is a big-money assumption that, if they were successful in business, they must have political/policy insights worth imposing on the country. This is not true.
Sadly, our campaign-finance system is making it less and less feasible for average Americans to run for anything. You are either incredibly wealthy--and therefore self-fund your campaign--or you are constantly raising dollars, rather than working on policy. The law prohibits the government from barring the rich from spending as much as they want on their own campaigns--and I'm fine with that. But the law does prohibit the rich from giving as much as they want to another candidate. Thus, with the ever-increasing costs of running for major office, it is only practical for the super rich to run.
But if they get in, or if you are middle class and want to get in, they need to plan to stay for the long haul. Otherwise, it's just money spent, full of sound and fury, signifying...
It's a long, long race,
Thomas More
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