Pointless Announcements

There has got to be something wrong with this one tooth they had a difficult time extracting. Still a ton of pain, enough to wake me every two hours or so even with the pain meds going full blast. The other three feel almost perfectly fine. This last one, not so much. Ugh.

 

Nice to have the inauguration fall on a holiday. Craig Robinson, the President's brother in law, is wearing orange and black. Love seeing my Beavers represented.

 

I seriously think this guy used speech-to-text software to write this manuscript.

 

But...but... Mitt Romney.....

I sincerely think the problem with American politics is the lack of accountability in either party due in large part to a devastating lack of third or fourth options with any clout. This is caused, in part, by first-past-the-post voting, which tends to suffocate smaller parties. Though FPTP exists in multi-party systems as well (often to annoying results). There are other reasons why America is a two-party system. The fact remains, however, that if one party short-circuits like the GOP has in recent years, then America becomes a virtual one-party system. Without other options that more closely represent the political will of the people, there will always be the lesser of two evil in America.

Many Americans are fine with this, fine with the two-party system (or 1.5 or 1.7 or whatever you may think it truly is between the GOP and the Democrats). It will, however, continue to alienate a significant number of Americans.

 

Inaugurations are interesting because it is literally just tradition that determines why things are done the way they are. There is nothing in the Constitution regarding an inauguration other than the Oath of Office for the President. I would guess that they don't hold it on Sunday because we should all be at church, or something to that effect.

 

Apparently, Chester A. Arthur added "so help me God." I live on a street named after Arthur, so I looked him up the other day, curious because I didn't know much about him. This was one of the factoids that popped up. Reagan did take the oath privately on a Sunday--it was also Super Bowl Sunday that day. We all know which one would win in this country, in terms of television ratings!

 

While I suppose the Inauguration is a political event, I also feel like it's a party of our country's fabric, and one of the few events where we really roll out the pomp and circumstance.