Monday, January 26, 2004
Which Tastes Best -- the Red M&M or the Brown M&M?
Do we really have to go through all this again -- all the debates, sound bites, 30 seconds of teeth and handshakes 6 times an hour, every newsman's top story, every papers front page?
Now I see why so many countries put up with kings and dictators -- no campaigns!
Now I sympathize with my mother-in-law who once said she was going to vote for the most handsome candidate. She said it was because she didn't want to look at the other guy's ugly face every day on the news for the next four years. It seems as good a reason as not, to vote for one person over another.
All that money, all that campaigning, to convince us there is a right side, a better party, a superior candidate.
Nowadays, the pro-economy and fiscally responsible Republicans are spending like Johnson in Vietnam. Yes, homeland security is expensive, but what happened to everyone biting the bullet, victory gardens, war bonds, paper & scrap drives, gas and food rations? Instead, we just go to that furniture store down the road and run up a houseful of bills with no payments and no interest for 3 years! -- then what?
And remember the conservative fat-cat Southern Democrat with suspenders and a big old Cuban cigar blowing smoke in our faces? The one who violently opposed any kind of civil rights, workers' rights, equal rights for women, anything that might take power away from the white plantation owners? He miraculously flip-flopped into the party of the unions and minorities. How did he do that? And how come so many people conveniently forgot what the Demos stood for in the 50's and 60's? Are people so easily brainwashed by a few repetitious slogans? The answer must be "YES".
We are all busy. We all have important lives. Guess we would much rather parrot a slogan or discuss a sound bite and pretend we have political understanding then to have to really think about our choices. And that is precisely why we have no choices. The political pundits cram some Crisco down our throats (regular or buttered -- it all feels the same). They give us what they assume we want, the look, the voice, the wife, the slogan, the hook.
If only we could have real options. Like other countries that have viable exciting races involving communist, socialist, true conservative and true liberal parties. Now that would be exciting.
But the Demos and the Repubes have convinced us that interest in a third party is a waste of our votes -- indeed, throwing away our votes -- an unconscionable derelict of an American duty. They had me convinced I should be humiliated to have voted for Ross Perot. But suddenly, I am proud. And this year, I am ready to look down the ballot just a bit further. Who is this years Independent, Libertarian, Green, etc? Are there any serious candidates out there?
Do we really have to go through all this again -- all the debates, sound bites, 30 seconds of teeth and handshakes 6 times an hour, every newsman's top story, every papers front page?
Now I see why so many countries put up with kings and dictators -- no campaigns!
Now I sympathize with my mother-in-law who once said she was going to vote for the most handsome candidate. She said it was because she didn't want to look at the other guy's ugly face every day on the news for the next four years. It seems as good a reason as not, to vote for one person over another.
All that money, all that campaigning, to convince us there is a right side, a better party, a superior candidate.
Nowadays, the pro-economy and fiscally responsible Republicans are spending like Johnson in Vietnam. Yes, homeland security is expensive, but what happened to everyone biting the bullet, victory gardens, war bonds, paper & scrap drives, gas and food rations? Instead, we just go to that furniture store down the road and run up a houseful of bills with no payments and no interest for 3 years! -- then what?
And remember the conservative fat-cat Southern Democrat with suspenders and a big old Cuban cigar blowing smoke in our faces? The one who violently opposed any kind of civil rights, workers' rights, equal rights for women, anything that might take power away from the white plantation owners? He miraculously flip-flopped into the party of the unions and minorities. How did he do that? And how come so many people conveniently forgot what the Demos stood for in the 50's and 60's? Are people so easily brainwashed by a few repetitious slogans? The answer must be "YES".
We are all busy. We all have important lives. Guess we would much rather parrot a slogan or discuss a sound bite and pretend we have political understanding then to have to really think about our choices. And that is precisely why we have no choices. The political pundits cram some Crisco down our throats (regular or buttered -- it all feels the same). They give us what they assume we want, the look, the voice, the wife, the slogan, the hook.
If only we could have real options. Like other countries that have viable exciting races involving communist, socialist, true conservative and true liberal parties. Now that would be exciting.
But the Demos and the Repubes have convinced us that interest in a third party is a waste of our votes -- indeed, throwing away our votes -- an unconscionable derelict of an American duty. They had me convinced I should be humiliated to have voted for Ross Perot. But suddenly, I am proud. And this year, I am ready to look down the ballot just a bit further. Who is this years Independent, Libertarian, Green, etc? Are there any serious candidates out there?
