Personal Political Poop

Speaking purely from the perspective of someone in their mid-thirties, maybe this whole democracy is not all it is cracked up to be. It is sold as a system where everyone has a voice and everyone gets a say in how the government will be run. As it turns out, it is really more about trying to keep government out of your pocket and off your back and voting for the lesser of two evils.

Think about it… if you began voting in the nineties your first choice was between a liberal, smooth-talking, saxophone playing, boxer wearing, dope smoker (who didn’t inhale), who was really popular with the ladies and an incumbent who had (read my lips) raised taxes. Well, the prior guy won and proceeded to raise taxes, solve military issues on homosexuality by making silence a policy, and tried to get his wife to completely socialize medicine.

Next we got the chance to try and replace this “first black president” with a guy who wanted to drastically reduce taxes, but he was (at the time) the oldest candidate ever and always referred to himself in the third person.

Then came the great promise of the hope from Texas; a conservative who softened his message with compassion. He unbelievably had some serious competition from a man who to this day regularly promises the end of the world every 10 years or so, and who has been proven simply full of hot air. (Hmmm, maybe the source of global warming?) His first term was beginning to look like a waste of time trying to make political opponents happy until national security issues rendered anything else he could attempt back burner issues. The next election (2004) was a non-issue.

Today we again are faced with Sophie’s Choice: whom do you love? The republicans have put forward their most Democrat-like candidate available; who is also the new oldest-man-to-ever-run. He also seems to think the key to beating opposition is to not fight and to appear ever more irrelevant. Meanwhile the democrats have finally settled on a man whose qualifications and experience seem to consist of a few weeks in the senate, good looks, ability to read a speech, race, and a naiveté that comes across as hopeful innocence. If nothing else, could Europe vote, he would win hands down.

Why do we even do this every four years?