STATE OF THE SO-CALLED "UNION" part 2 in an ongoing rant

"Vote for me & I'll set you free"



It begins.

Obama and McCain campaign ads now fill our TV screens and print ads. The presidential race is in full swing!

Am I the only one who feels under-whelmed? Didn’t it seem like all the preliminary stuff was the full swing portion of the program and this is the part where they roll the end credits?

The early portion of the race felt like a poorly plotted soap opera (a redundancy, I know) complete with backstabbing, backbiting and back door dealings. The Republicans presented a stunningly lackluster selection of misfits and glory hounds while the Democrats strove for social relevancy by presenting a female and black candidate, both of whom actually had a good chance of winning. That turned everything into some sort of reality TV show where every single move and utterance from Obama and Clinton was deemed newsworthy.

On the other side of the aisle, the Republicans predictably self-destructed in a whirling miasma of narcissism, infighting and sad attempts to distance themselves from the current administration. Although I was surprised at the time, perennial candidate John Wayne McCain of the crashed planes was the only one who could have possibly emerged from the cataclysm unscathed.

The less predictable outcome was among the Democrats, who seemed evenly divided on which groundbreaking candidate would emerge victorious. Ultimately, Clinton couldn’t compete with Obama’s Robert Kennedy appeal and stepped down as ungraciously as she could manage. Now we get to decide between the two…I mean, unless you choose to issue a protest vote and endorse that flaming nut Ron Paul…


BWAAAA HAAA HAAAA HAAA

Ok, I’m back. My sides hurt, but I’m back.

Soon after the final candidates were announced, the lame ads began. True to American politics, they seemed to focus almost exclusively (can you say almost exclusively?) on whatever financial concern we are expressing currently. This election year, that means gasoline, that precious Middle-Eastern supplied fuel we refuse to replace with something else. Republicans are all about short-term solutions of a fiscal nature to long-term social and environmental issues. Thus it comes as no surprise that McCain is backing the temporary tax break on gasoline. His ads paint Obama as a person who doesn’t want to help people by signing off on this “wonderful concept.” That’s because Obama’s people, like most intelligent Americans, realize it’s a scam designed to buy votes. Even Clinton’s camp endorsed it, but that comes as no surprise when considering she was every bit as much of a power-whore as Johnny.

This race is starting to resemble a contest of wills between two American gangsta rappers or two British rock stars. Both men seem hellbent on convincing us their particular struggle was the more meaningful of the two. McCain ads show a young, idealistic military man whose time in a POW camp is supposed to consider him worthy of the Oval Orifice. Obama’s ads stress the fact that he had very little as a child and was raised by his white grandparents so bi-racial types like me will appear able to communicate with everyone on the same level. There’s also a strong theme of the value and “dignity” of hard work in his ads, implying McCain is just a fat, lazy career politician who hasn’t turned in an honest days’ work in decades.

I don’t know. I think divorcing your ailing wife and marrying a much younger million-heiress in order to jumpstart his political aspirations took some serious hard work. No community organizer in the world will ever put that much effort into what they are doing!

I haven’t been interested in politics in a long, long time. The twenty-first century has seen the eroding of the political process and a withering away at democracy that disgusts and depresses me. Only recently have people started acting like they notice, and it is probably much too late.

Even the ads seem lackluster this time around, as if very little effort was invested into them. Perhaps none is required. The excitement drummed up during the primaries has guaranteed a large voter turnout this November. All the candidates need to do is remind us they are there and have a few debates to display their expert issue-avoidance skills.

I have a preference between the two candidates and I hope he wins, but a significant part of me refuses to believe it will make a difference. As Rage Against the Machine once sang, “The structure is set/You’ll never change it with a ballot pull.” I can’t separate myself from my cynicism. Nor from the feeling that nothing short of (hopefully bloodless) revolution will ever turn this country away from its self-destructive, tyrannical path.

I hardly even notice the ads anymore, except when I force myself to watch them. I definitely won’t be making a protest vote for a third party candidate this year the way I did in 2000 when Gore was a supposed shoe-in for president and I figured what would it hurt to give Nader my vote. I still don’t believe those who voted for Nader cost Gore the election. I believe Gore cost Gore the election by deemphasizing his connection to Clinton and not creating a rapport with the common folk.

But the elections of this decade are far too important to risk on protest votes anymore. We are now in a struggle for our very survival as a nation. This is true of both sides of the aisle and all in-between.

Let us choose wisely this time~





*Death to the facist insect that preys upon the minds of the people*