A Political System Out of Alignment

Who is this woman and why is she smiling?

The Iowa Straw Poll is a marvelous example of how a non-event at a time of little political activity can be catapulted into a major player in political horseracing, thus bastardizing the entire political process.

Michele Bachmann, a right wing nutjob with absolutely no chance of being president or even winning the Republican nomination, won the straw poll yesterday in a state that is much about America as is a rural country club.

But, today, you'd think she had won something immensely important, judging from the way it is treated by the bored--and increasingly boring--news media. Bachmann is a big hit with white, far right Christians who adore Rush Limbaugh and hate just about everything else. That's not even a majority of Iowans. It is simply a plurality of hard-core Repubs who pay to vote in a straw poll, a fund-raiser for the state party.

Still, we get network news coverage far out of any relationship to the importance of this drop in the political bucket and that gives a distorted impression of Bachmann's importance.

Our political system is so far out of alignment that it is likely irreparable.

(Photo: thereaction.com)