I have a big decision to make. For almost seven years now, I have resided in a property managed by a landlord who, on the plus side, has generally let me be but, on the minus side, has tended to neglect his local properties in favor of his foreign holdings. He’s also a bit of an ass, possessing all the charm and integrity of a snake oil salesman. Fortunately, this fellow will be giving up the real estate business in early 2009. However, his departure means that I will have to relocate. By next November, I will need to choose under whose roof I will dwell for the following four years (the standard length of a lease in these parts). Given the current market conditions, which seem to favor a slick coterie of wealthy landlords, my choices are severely limited. Furthermore, to make the process even more challenging, I will be required to make my selection based largely on the marketing materials the property management companies carefully release to me and a cursory examination of the property exteriors. Yes, as confounding as it may seem, I will have no opportunity to examine the interiors or otherwise get a more substantive sense of what it might be like to occupy the dwellings or rent from the landlords. It hardly seems fair or even practical. Who in their right mind would want to make such an important decision under these circumstances?
And yet the American people are expected to choose the next President in just such a way. The carefully-manicured candidates dispense carefully-manicured sound bites at carefully-manicured events, the media processes the trimmings for public consumption, and then half the populace schleps to the polls to vote for either Vanilla or Vanilla Fudge Ripple and the other half stays home to watch American Idol. That rumbling beneath your feet is the Founding Fathers spinning like jet turbines in their graves. This is hardly the democracy that they envisioned and fought for. At best, it is some sort of prefab replica, made to look solid as wood but actually composed of second-rate particle board. And this is what we all will continue to live with until we rise up and demand better accommodations.
Kmareka.com 
Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch. Don’t you know that this is Capitalism? That the Invisible Hand will push the bad landlords out of business? That you have infinite choice? That you have the same amount of knowledge as the landlords? This is the Free Market!!! All these things MUST be true!!!
It sounds like you think that the landlords have some kind of advantage over you. If you don’t like what the market offers, you are perfectly free to live on a park bench.
(OK, let’s turn of the snarky sarcasm generator now…)
And are you serious about the 4-year lease? I’ve never heard of that outside of commercial leases. Wow. Can they raise your rent during the lease period?
I was perhaps more oblique than usual, Klaus. I don’t actually have to relocate. The landlord scenario that I related was, in fact, a metaphor for the electoral process, specifically the coming presidential election when the current landlord, George W. Bush, will at long last be “giving up the real estate business.” Unfortunately—and here is what led me to write this piece—none of the viable contenders for the property management throne seem capable of providing the electorate with any dialogue of substance. All we get are cheesy sound bites. And the cheese is not even a decent Cheddar. It’s processed slices of American cheese. Who wants that?
I think some of the candidates are at least rising to the level of deli-sliced American cheese territory. 🙂 (PS. Some of us like American cheese.)
David, I got this, but it was probably too oblique for many. Still, it’s an interesting way to put two concepts together.
Don’t apologize, David. I’m just slow on the uptake. Which has been pointed out to me a few times here, and on some of the “other” blogs.
David:
Perfect piece of analogy. W has really acted as if he just owned everything and could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. The GOP will be in for a real surprise when the next Dem president uses W’s “roadmap” to stomp out dissent and run roughshod over Congress.
At this point in the “campaigns,” though, I wouldn’t put a whole lot of stock in what the candidates are saying and/or what the corporate media is distilling for popular consumption. This is nothing — wait until February when 16 primaries are done and CNdiN/FOX Noise/DisnABC are crowning the nominees. The story is too complex right now for the talking heads to warm-over for our digestion.
But I’m with you — I’m waiting for more of our fellow citizens to wake the F- up and actually earn the title of “Americans” by taking their responsibilities seriously, instead of being led by the nose. I think it’ll happen — it will take another seismic shift like the 1920s/Great Depression or the late 1960s/Nixon/oil crisis, unfortunately, but it’ll happen.
talking about being informed or should we say misinformed, did anyone read the projo today about the cumberland school chairman running afoul of ethics rules. wonder if any past or present city council presidents did the same?
klaus:
You and I have wrangled before over the pointedness of my replies. I’m going to dodge this one, for the sake of peace.