Impossible Situations

Have you ever noticed that people tend to embrace impossible situations? Sometimes they’re exciting, sometimes they’re dangerous … sometimes they’re both. And when all of your wisdom and experience tells you what to do; when the voice in your head is screaming … rather than run, you look for a way through that still gives you what you want.

It’s almost like a form of punishment we level on ourselves. But it doesn’t really feel like punishment until it’s over when we look back and ask…what the hell was I doing?

Now I’ll admit that sometimes, those situations lead us to places we’re all too happy to go. The blade of self-righteousness cuts both ways, and it cuts deep.

And these impossible situations are everywhere, including in Virginia politics in 2021.

Now that the Republican Party of Virginia has somewhat of a process for its 2021 nominations, I wonder if the grand bargain that was struck qualifies as an impossible situation, or one averted? And while I must give Chairman Anderson credit for finding his inner asshole and keeping the committee basically in line, it seemed clear from watching the meeting that it wasn’t a place anyone was really happy to go, but it also seemed everyone got something they wanted.

Or did they?

To me, the issue that keeps this agreement hovering near impossible territory is the voting. Ironically, the voting seemed to be the only issue everyone on the SCC agreed to. However, I am not convinced the powers that be really understand this can of worms.

I am normally a fan of ranked-choice voting. It’s more time-consuming, but it provides voters the most choice. But when you add unlimited delegates with weighted unit strength … for multiple candidates … the little voice starts screaming.

First of all, the weighted unit strength damages the point of unlimited delegates. A unit can only have a set number of delegate votes. So, if New Kent has 61 votes, and 1000 people vote, what the hell is the point?

But each of those 1000 votes still needs to be processed. Each ballot must be allocated to the various candidates in accordance with its mandates … on the first ballot.

Once the first round is over, the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, and the voters ranked choices have to be reallocated. For every single candidate.

Now, yes, of course, a computer program does all of this rather quickly, but all of a sudden money has been replaced by data and math control as the king of choice. Whoever controls the algorithm, controls the nomination. All you would need to completely rig the entire convention would be the ballot order of the candidates. And no one would ever know.

Now some people will just assume I am impossible to please … “Andrea, quit bitching.”

And while that’s debatable depending on who you ask,  that’s not it, really. I am looking forward to May 8 and what I see in the various districts is … a potential nightmare of epic proportions with the three highest offices in Virginia on the line.

So I am just highlighting one issue so all of the candidates can apply the proper scrutiny to the voting process and maybe avoid this impossible situation.

As for the rest of them, time will tell how impossible they are … it always does.