Post Election Depression

Well the Election Day madness is over in Ohio, and a couple of things became apparent. 

On a national level - Who really cares! McCain clinched the Republican nomination and Obama and Clinton are both willing to continue the fight. Blah, blah, blah ... This election has gone on so long that I can't keep an adequate supply of duct tape around the house to keep my head from exploding. I refuse to comment further on that madness, as every news wonk for 10,000 miles around has already talked it to death. 

Besides, I am too depressed to care (and I am sure that you want to know why). It is because on the local level, the city of Toledo voted to continue a .75% income tax and for a 6.5 mil levy for the Toledo Public Schools for the next 5 years by almost a 3-2 margin. 

Now you might wonder why in the world people would vote to remove money from their own pockets, but that would be because you don't understand the politics of the city of Toledo, so let me explain. Toledo is a union town (surprise, huh). In fact, approximately 30% of the population holds union membership. Any reduction in taxes, either in the city income tax or the levy, would predominantly impact the wages of the union workers in Toledo. These workers (police, fire, trash pick up, city office workers, teachers) have some pretty sweet contracts right now. 

Those contracts are negotiated by the politicians asking for the higher taxes. The unions therefore, vote for what the politicians ask for, and in return, the politicians keep the government taps open for these union contracts, as well as any other projects that are required to keep those in power - in power. 

And power in Toledo passes through families as if it were organized crime. Sons and daughters follow fathers and mothers in a form of political genetic engineering that seems to result in the shallow end of the gene pool forever in charge of local government. 

Quite frankly, the entire thing seems like a real-life version of "Groundhog Day". No matter when you wake up, Toledo is the same, and people with the same last names are running it.  

So the insanity continues, and the population of the city of Toledo (at least the smart ones or the ones with choices) seek for ways to escape the madness. I know that I should too, but I am simply too depressed to think about it right now. I am the Brando character in "Apocalypse Now", sitting in the dark, endlessly repeating: "The Horror, the horror ..."