Base closure politics

I was finishing up the painting in the youth room this afternoon, and had the radio on to the Rush Limbaugh show. I actually dislike Rush quite a bit and find most of his show to be self-serving and bombastic, which is no big surprise to anyone. He frequently distorts matters and relies more on verbosity and volume than sound reasoning. Today was another brilliant example:

Senator John Thune, who recently displaced Tom Daschle in South Dakota, has announced his intentions to vote against John Bolton's appointment to the UN in retaliation for the closure of a military base in his state. Rush admits that he cannot blame the guy - South Dakota is a small state and will experience a greater financial hardship than a larger or more populous state. Further, Rush suggested that the White House should have actually closed a base in the state of one of the "sell-outs" who crafted the deal to avoid the so-called "nuclear option." The essence of Rush's argument is that base closures should be made on the basis of political infighting instead of either a sound defensive posture or economics.

In my opinion, this is one of the key failings of democracy. Though it is still a vastly superior system to anything else yet tried, it will always eventually come down to political considerations over the best interests of the state and her people.