{"id":10950,"date":"2016-03-13T08:26:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-13T14:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=10950"},"modified":"2016-03-13T08:26:02","modified_gmt":"2016-03-13T14:26:02","slug":"prairie-lights-on-reptiles-patsies-and-founding-fathers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/03\/prairie-lights-on-reptiles-patsies-and-founding-fathers\/","title":{"rendered":"Prairie Lights: On reptiles, patsies and Founding Fathers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Underwood\"<\/a>

Netflix<\/p>

For better or worse, neither Kevin Spacey nor Frank Underwood is running for president this year.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the midst of one of the strangest, most outlandish, stark-ravingly maddest election cycles in the history of the United States, a surprising number of voters have turned to me for guidance.<\/p>\n

I was tempted to tell them all to take two aspirin and go to bed until the third week of November, but that seemed a trifle irresponsible. So, I will attempt to answer all the questions to the best of my limited abilities. Here goes.<\/p>\n

\"Ole<\/a>

Ed Kemmick<\/p><\/div>\n

Dear Ed<\/strong>: I have been closely following the presidential primary and I have to ask: has our country lost its goddamned mind?\u2014Curious in Columbus<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear CiC<\/strong>: I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fair to say the country has lost its mind, but it is more than 200 years old, so perhaps a bit of dementia has begun to creep in.<\/p>\n

Dear Ed<\/strong>: My dictionary tells me that a debate is a \u201ccontest of argumentation,\u201d in which opponents use reason, logic and persuasion to settle matters of contention, or to attempt to prove the worthiness of their beliefs. How on earth can we continue to call these televised Republican thug-fests debates?\u2014Appalled in Absarokee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear AiA<\/strong>: My own dictionary (American Heritage) lists these \u201cobsolete\u201d definitions of the word \u201cdebate\u201d: 1, verb, \u201cTo fight; quarrel\u201d; and 2, noun, \u201cConflict, strife, contention.\u201d This is a case of the Republican candidates falling back on the doctrine of \u201coriginalism,\u201d in which one seeks out what our ancestors meant by certain words or phrases and then ordering one\u2019s life according to their principles.<\/p>\n

Dear Ed<\/strong>: What do you suppose the Founding Fathers would think if they could somehow witness this election year?\u2014Wondering in Winnett<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear WiW<\/strong>: I believe they would be unable to think anything at all after the reality of modern-day America landed on their heads like an anvil. In time, though, some of the harder-headed ones, like John Adams, probably would have figured we\u2019d got what we deserved.<\/p>\n

Dear Ed<\/strong>: I\u2019m a big fan of \u201cHouse of Cards,\u201d in which the U.S. president and his wife are depicted as soulless monsters who would stop at nothing, not even murder, in their quest for power. Do you see any parallels between that show and the current election season?\u2014Flummoxed in Floweree<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>Dear FiF<\/strong>: A lot of Tea Partiers would say the first couple in \u201cHouse of Cards\u201d is a watered-down version of Bill and Hillary Clinton or Barack and Michelle Obama. A lot of Democrats would say that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are more like the dragons in \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d\u2014uncontrollable fire-breathing reptiles.<\/p>\n

Dear Ed<\/strong>: I see that the Montana Democrats have managed, once again, to find some patsy to pretend he\u2019s running for governor<\/a>, enabling the sitting Democratic governor, in this case Steve Bullock, to blow primary campaign donations on the general election. Why don\u2019t they just change the law to allow that sort of spending whether there\u2019s a primary challenger or not?\u2014Baffled in Billings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear BiB<\/strong>: Legislators in both parties are so familiar with this charade that it seems easier to indulge in it than going to the trouble of explaining to simple-minded voters how things really work. Plus, it gives a small number of people the pleasure of telling the grandkids that they once ran for governor.<\/p>\n

Dear Ed<\/strong>: Since Montana has only three electoral votes, and since our primaries are so late in the cycle that it is almost inconceivable that our state could make the slightest difference in choosing either the Republican or Democratic presidential candidates, why should we care as much as we seem to do?\u2014Confused in Colstrip<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear CiC<\/strong>: That\u2019s a good question, so good that I can\u2019t really answer it. I\u2019m no political scientist, but I know even less about psychology.<\/p>\n

Dear Ed<\/strong>: What do you make of the Senate Republicans announcing ahead of time that they won\u2019t even consider any Supreme Court nominees brought forward by President Obama? Don\u2019t they have a constitutional duty to act on such a nomination?\u2014Just Asking in Alzada<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear JAiA<\/strong>: According to the Constitution, yes. But a lot of leading Republicans think a single quote attributed to Jefferson\u2014\u201cThat government is best which governs least\u201d\u2014supersedes everything in the Constitution. According to this view of governance, we are approaching a state of perfection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the midst of one of the strangest, most outlandish, stark-ravingly maddest election cycles in the history of the United States, a surprising number of voters have turned to me for guidance. I was tempted to tell them all to take two aspirin and go to bed until the third week of November, but that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[212,2853,3990,1428,1540,3989,1674,1297],"class_list":["post-10950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prairie-lights","tag-barack-obama","tag-donald-trump","tag-frank-underwood","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-john-adams","tag-kevin-spacey","tag-ted-cruz","tag-thomas-jefferson","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}