Ready or not, here they come...

Whew!

A bitch has been pondering the political race that is now clearly upon us. All manner of presidential candidates, eager to dazzle and woo the middle territory that is Missouri, will be coming to town in the month of May.

Sigh.

Politics is local, chil’ren…but political campaigns rarely are.

When politicians visit St. Louis they usually attend some shined up community effort and pander to the disconnected masses by waxing on and on about how {insert name of local program shined up for campaign visit} might be recreated on a national level.

I have seen candidates swing through…visit, smile, shake hands and take pictures…and then attend some glitzy high dollar fundraiser where they give the same speech they gave yesterday which is the same speech they’ll give tomorrow…and then visit, smile, shake hands and take pictures…only to be out of town less than 10 hours from when they first entered.

An amazing accomplishment of scheduling execution that results in said candidate having seen nothing of the city, its residents or the specific issues facing those of us who live here.

Sigh.

Anyhoo, the other day I watched the political chat shows and wished Missouri was Iowa.

Blink.

What?

Shit.

In a bitch’s mind, if Missouri were Iowa we’d have intimate sit downs and chats with candidates.

Sigh.

I’ve always imagines that Caucus shit to be more one on one.

Fuck it, this bitch is envious as hell of Iowans for the face to face attention they get every four years!

I just wish…oh, how I wish....that those candidates were visiting with a bitch for a week (wink).

I’d show off my St. Louis…the awesome diversity and funky neighborhood sensibilities….the abandoned buildings in need of companies and the boarded up schools in need of students. We’d walk down Grand north of Lindell and view a street in need of repair, a community in need of jobs and people in need of representation. We would journey to shelters where so much is accomplished with so little funding or support…we’d tour mental health outreach centers where the people are connected with opportunities and statistics have names and hopes, dreams and fears.

We’d walk through amazing rebirth and established prosperity as well. I did mention that this city is diverse, didn’t a bitch?

Most importantly we would see a more complete picture. I happen to think that understanding matters.

I just don’t believe good policy can be developed from a distance…any more than I believe politics should be the domain of the wealthy and therefore connected.

But who the hell am I, right?

Just another AngryBlackBitch who those smiling candidates won’t be chatting with when they swing through my city this month to pick up those entrée granting donations that prevent political campaigns from being as local as politics will forever remain…

…who votes.