Your LCD Eliminates Me

The older I get, the more apathetic I become. I remember being passionate about politics; election season would bring out the worst in me. I would be impassioned by the ideas involving "truth" and "justice" and other so-called ideals I felt were important. Now? Not so much so. As I age, in every election I see the same patterns played out again and again by both sides, and I want nothing really to do with any of it.

When this election cycle started, I liked two people: on the Republican side, Ron Paul, because he was bat-shit insane, but honest, and on the Democrat side, Bill Richardson, because while I didn't know anything about him, when asked a direct yes/no question, he always gave a direct yes/no answer. As both men were eventually eliminated by those giving better sound-bites or more willing to pander to the masses, and we the people were left with Barack Obama and John McCain, I thought to myself, "You know what, I'm not going to play the two-party game this year. I'm going to write in my candidate of choice." Yes, I knew I would be throwing my vote away, but fuck it. The older I get, the more I want to do things based on principle, not desire.

I've never been fascinated with Obama the way his cultists are. I find his speeches to be halting at best, and in debates his answers are vagaries of air over substance, given with a slick politician's delivery. His choosing of Biden over Hillary seemed to me the ultimate move in an ego run amok, saying "I know I could take this moment to unite the party and give America what it wants out of the Democratic Party, but no, I'm going to show the world I don't need her, that I can do it entirely on my own." Hell, I actually like Biden more than Obama, but even I knew he wouldn’t be a boost to the ticket; the lack of significant post-convention bounce proved that. Regarding the Democratic Convention, all throughout Democrats were mocked justly by The Daily Show as being good-natured, but loopy and unfocused. They bleated "CHANGE" like the sheep they were, and looked silly doing so. I shook my head, smiled, and was happy to not be a part of it.

Then came the Republican Convention.

I'm not sure what upset me more about the RNC, the vitriol in just about every speech given, or the cheering of the ignorant masses lapping it up. Instead of creating a positive launching pad from which to propel McCain to victory, a slanderous foundation was created, and since then it's gone nothing but downhill. Today, instead of speeches involving the problems we face as a nation and the solutions the Republican ticket offers, we have Palin mocking reporters to shift attention from her inability to answer any question thoughtfully, a fetish-like obsession with William Ayers (which is amusing in the hypocrisy considering Palin's husband's ties to secessionists) and outright lies in campaign ads, such as the now infamous one involving Obama's support of legislation designed to protect children from molestation or the one even Karl Rove (the father of all things evil) called going "one step too far" on Obama's tax plan...

When negativity is your core value, then you will draw in those who respond to fear and intolerance, and I believe it is absolutely why I spied a sign today that read: "STOP ABORTION AND GAY MARRIAGE, VOTE MCCAIN/PALIN!"--Odd issues to push against, considering the right-wing is supposed to be about less government, not legislation of what adults can do with their body or in their bedroom. Such a sign seems only one step away from "VOTE RIGHT, VOTE WHITE: MCCAIN/PALIN," which is an undercurrent many campaign stops are showing these days.

The sign is also a reflection of those most damaging of voters out there, the single-item idiots. "I don't care about the economy or the world, but if a candidate says he is pro-life, then he gets my vote!" "I don't earn enough to get a tax-break from the McCain plan, but dammit, my biased, integrity and mostly fact-free NRA website says Obama wants my guns, so I'm voting against him!" "The bible contains loosely translated passages about them homos and how they're bad, so I'm voting Christian, and Obama's a Muslim!"

(The only real single-issue I can think of on the left is the silly "NO WAR!" chant. "How do you feel about the economy?" NO WAR! "Ok... how about social security, any thoughts?" NO BLOOD FOR OIL! "Ok... how about you kill yourself?)

Overall, I'm not sure where this leaves me. I'm still not really impressed with Obama, but I'm absolutely disgusted by McCain. I don't know that either has any real answers, but the thing is, at least Obama is attempting to offer them. Maybe he is in over his head, and cannot deliver on everything he's promising... but wouldn't it be something if he did? Or even came close?