Re-electing incumbents
and expecting laws
to change
We’re entering election season here in the U. S. A.
If you want to vote the bums out, you’ve got to be registered.
If you think you’re registered, they might have purged you.
Double-check at Voter Registration Status.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit.
Bartholomew Barker, Poet 
A system with flaws and no claws
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There are claws. They’re just turned on the voters instead of the elected.
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✊
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Not sure what that emoji represents (it’s just a little yellow blob) but I’ll assume you’re expressing satisfaction and thank you.
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It’s a voting fist some sort, I guess it to mean ‘go!’
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I approve of the fist raised high in defiance.
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Yep.
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At least you and I won’t be sending any incumbents back to Washington this year but only because they chose to retire.
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It’s a matter of Democracy or fascism. Vote Blue
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At least we can sometimes shame the Democrats into doing the right thing.
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Right 😊
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Yes, DC be a company town, but it’s not the incumbent, it’s the intolerant that usually gums the works.
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While I agree the intolerant gum up the works, the incumbents, to a large degree, permit it, citing tradition and some collegiality long gone.
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Got ya in the main, but even if those old pro pols and this new…new-wave and punk post-truth pols… were even aware of Cincinnatus, institutional memory is key to combating a rigged from the get-go anti-majoritarian political system. The why of my worry about hardcore and at any cost… ‘cross the board anti-incumbency.
Recall recent history…GOP House Speaker after Speaker run out of the Beltway for dare suggesting compromise might be a key to unlocking even a modicum of, We The People democracy.
Your concerns about those who go to DC to do good. but hang way too long, having learned how to do well, is legendary and a legit argument for throwing the bums out. But I think current times and circumstance call for a more discriminate and cautious approach.
As always, Regards.
R.Douglas
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Obviously, my political views are more nuanced than can be expressed in a haiku but I stand by this bumper sticker.
I strongly disagree that this moment calls for a more discriminate and cautious approach. When the Republicans openly embrace Fascism and the Democrats can’t unify to oppose their own demolition, all while we face a climate catastrophe of our own creation, this is not the time for incremental steps or half measures. We need a revolution at the ballot box like 1932.
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From the safety of distance
U.S. elections look more like
a geriatric beauty contest
corrupted by the many lobbyists
of big business, and the worst
of vested interest.
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Your distance provides a clear perspective that my fellow Americans mostly lack.
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I entirely agree with your Haiku – but will add that at least in America those in power are all elected and the public can take action when they are unsatisfactory.
We have the Monarchy – and we’re stuck with them! http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=15917
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Very true though it seems like the corporate overlords are trying to install something like a monarchy here. We’re fighting but they’ve got a lot of money to deceive voters.
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“……but they’ve got a lot of money to deceive voters.” Bart hits nail on head, again!
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So wise and true!!!
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Grazie, Luisa!
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🙏🤗🙏🌷🙏
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It’s interesting when people complain about politicians but vote their party and people instead of voting for policies and ideas. Most politicians have their platform where you can find it and if they don’t, then they shouldn’t be voted for.
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Totally agree! And for incumbents, we can also check how they actually voted since it doesn’t always track with their stated platform.
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