Less than 60 Days
So it was last Friday morning when I got an email about John McCain’s running mate. That seems like ages and ages ago. That was back when the drama of Hillary & Michelle at the DNC was all anyone was talking about. When Obama seemed like the big deal.
Oh, happy days, where have you gone?
I don’t want to discuss politics here, even though I have like 4 readers. Not worth it. I’ve basically given up all political discussions, except with people who I know agree with me, because arguments are rarely rational or fact-based. They’re just lies and smears and slander that don’t do anything.
So a big fat veto on political discussions. Not a signing statement—a veto.
Normally, I’m quite chill. I remember being 22 in London, watching the results of the Bush/Gore election trickle in. And trickle in. At the beginning of the night it looked like Gore might pull it out. The conservative parents of one of my classmates were visiting from the U.S., and from the way they moaned and cried and carried on you would’ve thought the United States was going to collapse on itself the moment Gore claimed victory.
I just sat and stared at them. Hello? Do you realize that your life will hardly change at all no matter WHO is elected? I was 22 and my candidate lost when I was a 10 year old and a 14 year old and an 18 year old. Life continued, pretty much as normal. These people were older than I was, they’d lived through multiple elections, Democrats and Republicans. Had they ever seen anything change THAT much?
I was slightly more blasé back then. Because I think elections do make a difference—not in big ways (Obama is not going to turn this into a Muslim state or hand us over to Pakistan; McCain is not going to create a Christian theocracy and ban birth control in all forms), but in small ways.
In directions and choices and giving up and handing over and deciding national priorities.
My national priorities are aligned more closely with one particular candidate than with the other, so of course I’ll be voting for that one (I don’t know why I’m hinting around at this—it’s Obama. I’ve said so here before.)
I’m feeling pessimistic right now. Not so much about the election, although that’s part of it, but about people in this country and how we make decisions.
Maybe my earlier prediction here will be wrong. I hope so. If it isn’t, we’ll all survive. And I’ll still be worried.
Oh, happy days, where have you gone?
I don’t want to discuss politics here, even though I have like 4 readers. Not worth it. I’ve basically given up all political discussions, except with people who I know agree with me, because arguments are rarely rational or fact-based. They’re just lies and smears and slander that don’t do anything.
So a big fat veto on political discussions. Not a signing statement—a veto.
Normally, I’m quite chill. I remember being 22 in London, watching the results of the Bush/Gore election trickle in. And trickle in. At the beginning of the night it looked like Gore might pull it out. The conservative parents of one of my classmates were visiting from the U.S., and from the way they moaned and cried and carried on you would’ve thought the United States was going to collapse on itself the moment Gore claimed victory.
I just sat and stared at them. Hello? Do you realize that your life will hardly change at all no matter WHO is elected? I was 22 and my candidate lost when I was a 10 year old and a 14 year old and an 18 year old. Life continued, pretty much as normal. These people were older than I was, they’d lived through multiple elections, Democrats and Republicans. Had they ever seen anything change THAT much?
I was slightly more blasé back then. Because I think elections do make a difference—not in big ways (Obama is not going to turn this into a Muslim state or hand us over to Pakistan; McCain is not going to create a Christian theocracy and ban birth control in all forms), but in small ways.
In directions and choices and giving up and handing over and deciding national priorities.
My national priorities are aligned more closely with one particular candidate than with the other, so of course I’ll be voting for that one (I don’t know why I’m hinting around at this—it’s Obama. I’ve said so here before.)
I’m feeling pessimistic right now. Not so much about the election, although that’s part of it, but about people in this country and how we make decisions.
Maybe my earlier prediction here will be wrong. I hope so. If it isn’t, we’ll all survive. And I’ll still be worried.
Labels: Political Animals
posted by Melanie at 3:23 PM
