Primary Election Voters' Guide and a Little Humor

When the one hundred and fifty-two page Pierce County Official Local Voters’ Pamphlet arrived I did a quick fan of the contents and dropped it on our mail table for my wife Peg to see. The next day a friend sent me an email suggesting with my sense of humor I might write an article about the manual itself.

I went back and did a slower fan of the contents. The first thing that popped into my mind was the pseudo historical British sitcom Blackadder featuring television episodes starring Rowan Atkinson as the antihero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder’s dogsbody, Baldrick. Each series was set in a different historical period. The episode Dish and Dishonesty, set in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, deals with running for office in Parliament. Since the subject is elections, even though it was first broadcast in September of 1987, it is usually re-broadcast at election time. This episode contains my favorite Blackadder quotation: “I have a plan so cunning, you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel.” – dailymotion.com/video/x5t001b

In the Blackadder episode there are three independent political parties:
1. Keep-Royalty-White-Rat-Catching-And-Safe-Sewage-Residents-Party
2. Standing-At-the-Back-Dressed-Stupidly-And-Looking-Stupid-Party
3. Adder-Party

Blackadder is an acquired taste . . . but then, so is our election system. Peg and I usually sit down together and take turns reading, laughing, and weighing each candidate and proposal. We don’t always vote the same, which often calls for a shake of the head and a roll of the eyes, but we take the job of voting seriously.

Although in Blackadder there were three political parties; in our Pierce County Official Local Voters’ Pamphlet we have a wider, much wider selection of parties and candidate to look over:

1. Republican Party
2. Democratic Party
3. Essential Workers Party
4. Trump Republican Party
5. Congress Sucks Party
6. StandupAmerica Party
7. Unaffiliated Party
8. Socialist Workers Party
9. Green Party
10. Propertarianist Party
11. Independent Party
12. American Patriot Party
13. Fifth Republic Party
14. Pre2016 Republican Party
15. Cascadia Labour Party
16. New-Liberty Party
17. Libertarian Party
18. GOP Party

The photographs for each candidate run from no photo, to facial photos with or without face masks.

The candidates vary from friends, and familiar faces and names to someone known as Goodspaceguy who has run against incumbents 21 times. In my mind, I had many acerbic and funny comments, but in the end I decided to let the candidates speak for themselves. They may make you fuss and fume, but they need to be reviewed. Choose wisely. This is serious, but I still recommend you watch Blackadder, chuckle, and decide.

Our primary election is August 4. I anticipate a lively discussion with Peg about all the candidates for federal, state, legislative, and Pierce County candidates. I also expect a few laughs and frowns . . . but then, that’s politics . . . and our future.