No scrubs -- Read the tea leaves, politicians: Voters ARE wising up

Call it a protest.

Call it a reform movement.

Call it just plain old curiosity.

But don't for one minute think that the fact that anti-establishment candidates are leading in polls for both parties this presidential primary year is insignificant.

It means something very simple: Many voters have figured out the game.

The reality is that politics has become less a well-intentioned argument about what is best for the future of this nation and more about manipulating voter pools and pandering to voting blocs.

It has become about winning, not serving.

It has become about manipulation, not message.

Sometimes it seems as if even some of the candidates do not believe what they are spewing.

And then comes 2015.

In the past, it has been almost impossible to rail against the party machines. They had too much money and they were too powerful.

An outsider was almost on his own -- and now, Bernie Sanders is almost ready to topple one of the biggest and most effective politicking machines ever created -- the Clintons.

And part of the reason, just like part of the reason that Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson are so popular on the Republican side, is that voters have heard all of this before and then watched the same old, same old from their leaders again and again.

And the truth is, they do think politicians are out for personal gain, power and a lucrative after life.

They do think that the bickering and fighting in Washington is about ego and power, not what's right for the country.

They do think that there is a Washington insider track that cares little about what pain and suffering they inflict on the rest of the country -- as long as it does not affect them.

And, most importantly, they believe that many politicians can be bought and that lying is what they do.

So, this year, new perspective, new ideas and someone with a message that does not sound like the call of a career politician is what is necessary, what is intriguing.

This year, experience in the inner sanctum of Washington is not necessarily a positive.

After all, voters have tried this already and their government still does not function.

And the golden tones of "change" and promises of a new vision are not enough either.

They have had that, too, and what they ended up with did not even come close to filling the bill.

So, they are trying straight talk and radical new approaches, just this once.

And whether they admit or not, the establishment candidates are dumbfounded.

Maybe it is a sign that we are getting smarter.

Maybe it is a sign that we are getting tired.

Or maybe there are just too many of us who are worried about the future of this nation and who are looking for a new knight on a charging steed.

Or maybe to quote the now-defunct girl group TLC, we just "don't want no scrubs."

This time we want the real thing.

Published in Editorials on September 1, 2015 12:30 PM