Sick and Tired of Fear and Loathing...
...or, A Little Bit of Venting On Things Political.
I refrain from discussing politics in this space for much the same reason I generally avoid discussing them in real life: what typically passes for 'discussion' is usually better labeled 'a talking contest.' If I wished to be preached at, why I'd attend church. So the following should neither be construed as an attempt at discussion on my part, nor an invitation for others to try to convince of the soundness of their political views. It is, simply, me blowing off steam.
I dislike election years under the best of circumstances, which this year certainly is not. This year's campaigning season has filled me with such rage and contempt that at times I avoid news of it entirely. Both parties claim to want 'what's best for America' and both parties continue to insult my intelligence on an almost daily basis. Having weathered a storm of charge and counter-charge of the Swift Boat controversy and who did/said what in Vietnam, we now find ourselves entering into a fresh storm of accusations over the recently discovered and possibly forged documents regarding Bush's Guard service.
A nice bit of Sturm und Drang about events 30 years gone to fill the void left by the absence of any substantial debate over what happens next. As in now. As in the future. While fighting a war with a military some would argue is over-stretched, and spending billions in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is no talk of say, putting the economy on a war-footing and perhaps (oh novel idea) spending less in other areas. Instead we have tax cuts and government handouts of various shapes and sizes - in short business as usual in which no one, with the large exception of military personnel and their families, is asked to sacrifice anything to win this undeclared war. From observing our daily routine a visitor from another planet would have to look hard to discern that American soldiers are fighting and dying abroad.
While the two opposing camps attempt to make political hay in various ways over Vietnam, what talk of securing our borders - beyond creating an agency that makes travel a hassle, succeeds admirably in harassing Marine Corp Medal Honor winners, but does little to reassure me. Developing alternative energy sources to rid ourselves once and for all of a dependency on oil? Not a whisper. Our intelligence agencies? Apparently we're creating more bureaucracy to add to a system that I suspect has far too many chiefs and not enough Indians. The economy? Just pretend that deficit isn't looming overhead, especially if you plan on living - and making a living - for the next 30 odd years.
Understand me well: I loathe both candidates. Loathe them... and the poisonous political atmosphere they operate in... and the people who help perpetuate that atmosphere. I am sick unto death of rhetoric about 'Vietnam' and 'character' and scandals and dirty tricks. I am, perhaps, overly simple and politically naive to expect any of the above questions and concerns to be addressed in a concrete manner. It is certainly easier for both parties to engage in sniping over scandals and dirty tricks, and many folks eagerly lap it up, with righteous indignation. Your guy is Hitler! Your man is a traitor! Aargh! A plague on all such idiotic notions.
Me? I just like to know I'm being made as safe as reasonably possible and maybe given a decent opportunity to, you know, work, maybe actually own a house, maybe even be able to have children that are clothed, fed and educated.
I'll stop here. If you've read this far you're probably bored to tears, and frankly this gentleman expressed my sentiments far better than I can:
Meanwhile I'll continue to wait and hope for a candidate that represents me.
I refrain from discussing politics in this space for much the same reason I generally avoid discussing them in real life: what typically passes for 'discussion' is usually better labeled 'a talking contest.' If I wished to be preached at, why I'd attend church. So the following should neither be construed as an attempt at discussion on my part, nor an invitation for others to try to convince of the soundness of their political views. It is, simply, me blowing off steam.
I dislike election years under the best of circumstances, which this year certainly is not. This year's campaigning season has filled me with such rage and contempt that at times I avoid news of it entirely. Both parties claim to want 'what's best for America' and both parties continue to insult my intelligence on an almost daily basis. Having weathered a storm of charge and counter-charge of the Swift Boat controversy and who did/said what in Vietnam, we now find ourselves entering into a fresh storm of accusations over the recently discovered and possibly forged documents regarding Bush's Guard service.
A nice bit of Sturm und Drang about events 30 years gone to fill the void left by the absence of any substantial debate over what happens next. As in now. As in the future. While fighting a war with a military some would argue is over-stretched, and spending billions in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is no talk of say, putting the economy on a war-footing and perhaps (oh novel idea) spending less in other areas. Instead we have tax cuts and government handouts of various shapes and sizes - in short business as usual in which no one, with the large exception of military personnel and their families, is asked to sacrifice anything to win this undeclared war. From observing our daily routine a visitor from another planet would have to look hard to discern that American soldiers are fighting and dying abroad.
While the two opposing camps attempt to make political hay in various ways over Vietnam, what talk of securing our borders - beyond creating an agency that makes travel a hassle, succeeds admirably in harassing Marine Corp Medal Honor winners, but does little to reassure me. Developing alternative energy sources to rid ourselves once and for all of a dependency on oil? Not a whisper. Our intelligence agencies? Apparently we're creating more bureaucracy to add to a system that I suspect has far too many chiefs and not enough Indians. The economy? Just pretend that deficit isn't looming overhead, especially if you plan on living - and making a living - for the next 30 odd years.
Understand me well: I loathe both candidates. Loathe them... and the poisonous political atmosphere they operate in... and the people who help perpetuate that atmosphere. I am sick unto death of rhetoric about 'Vietnam' and 'character' and scandals and dirty tricks. I am, perhaps, overly simple and politically naive to expect any of the above questions and concerns to be addressed in a concrete manner. It is certainly easier for both parties to engage in sniping over scandals and dirty tricks, and many folks eagerly lap it up, with righteous indignation. Your guy is Hitler! Your man is a traitor! Aargh! A plague on all such idiotic notions.
Me? I just like to know I'm being made as safe as reasonably possible and maybe given a decent opportunity to, you know, work, maybe actually own a house, maybe even be able to have children that are clothed, fed and educated.
I'll stop here. If you've read this far you're probably bored to tears, and frankly this gentleman expressed my sentiments far better than I can:
We have watched the division of the country into two ineffective camps, something that is especially apparent in an electoral season. On the one hand is John Kerry, a humorless Boston scold, in appearance the love child of Abraham Lincoln and Bette Midler, who recites slogans that he understands but does not believe. And on the other is the president, proud of his aversion to making an argument for his own case, in appearance a denizen of the Pleistocene, who recites slogans that he believes but does not understand.
Three years on, that is where we stand: our strategy shiftless, reactive, irrelevantly grandiose; our war aims undefined; our preparations insufficient; our civil defense neglected; our polity divided into support for either a hapless and incompetent administration that in a parliamentary system would have been turned out long ago, or an opposition so used to appeasement of America's rivals, critics, and enemies that they cannot even do a credible job of pretending to be resolute.
Meanwhile I'll continue to wait and hope for a candidate that represents me.
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