Musings on the ruins

Well, the Democratic contest is over. Both candidates have been picked. Now we enter the lull.

Summer is never a good time for campaigning. Ideally, candidates should be fundraising and stay quiet. There’s no need to jump right in. Everyone needs to catch their breath and carefully consider their next move.

Or not…

Looking over the news the crap de jour it indicates that Michelle Obama is fair game. No she isn’t. Fist bumps? Supposed hidden radical Islamic interests? The first time I’m proud?

All totally irrelevant. All distractions formulated by those with lesser and simpler minds. The people that fork this stuff out are, in essence, calling you an idiot, and they badly want you in their club of idiots. So ignore it. Despite my hopes that this will be a contest of ideas I’m not exactly holding out any real hope here. McCain and Obama are both fine candidates. They’re probably, for once, the best that both sides have to offer given the times.

However, it just isn’t up to them, is it? No candidate can control what their supporters do and say. MoveOn (oh how I hate them) just put up this ridiculous ad. Check it out, but make sure to have a bucket nearby for the inevitable puke that should follow.

Awww, isn’t that sweet. She knows how to pimp her little baby for fear based politics. Yeah, John McCain says we will have to stay in Iraq, and he’s right. Beyond politics lies reality. To be blunt…we broke it, we bought it, and now we have to fix it. Every school. Every town. Every foot of plumbing and wiring. We have to fix or build all of these things. If we don’t, then were the worst kind of scum. McCain is right and Obama should just admit it and cede the point. There’s no dishonor in acknowledging the obvious.

Has anyone thought about the consequences of just leaving Iraq in the state that it is in? They go far beyond American casualties. The reality is that Iraq was a control rod before and that needs to be maintained. We were wrong to invade. We were, I’m convinced, deliberately misled into a needless war. However, it’s our problem now whether we like it or not.

So, in that spirit, I’d like to ask MoveOn to kindly shut the fuck up. Kids ARE NOT political props and you lost your war before it even started. Accept it, and move on. You can’t fight the past. You can only study it so future mistakes (like the Iraq war) can be avoided. But anyone that tells you we can just leave and everything will be hunky dory is full of shit, and should be treated accordingly.

On the flip side the GOP is bringing the erudite as only they can. For example…

Um…wow. This little gem was at the Texas GOP convention (and god knows where else). Really, come on. Racism is funny…right. Ha ha ha (insert sound of gunshot aimed at the vicinity of my head). To be fair the Teas GOP banned the person responsible for the button…after the fact. No party official saw that little gem? Nobody tried to stop this before it started? This button has been brought to you by the same people that think Obama’s wife is fair game and the letters “F” and “U”.

Really, what kind of wuss goes after somebody’s wife?

To add to the frivolity, some Republicans are refusing to vote for McCain because he’s ,well, John McCain…every Democrat’s favorite Republican until recently. Also some Democrats are refusing to vote for Obama because of his seemingly appalling lack of a Vagina. God I love single issue voters. They have to be the dumbest fucking people on the face of the planet. But their views are just so adorable. They’re so dumb it’s almost cute. They not only can’t see the forest for the trees, but they usually deny the forest exists at all and swear this is the only tree in the known universe. Only the Democrats can get in a tolerance-off with themselves and still lose. Some women’s groups won’t vote for Obama and are actively going to support McCain. Really?! Brilliant. Wow. With minds like that at the helm of the women’s movement (or whatever passes for it these days) how can they lose?

I guess it’s your bad luck to have a dick Barak. I guess you’ll have to settle for being the “other” historical candidate, you lucky black American male you.

So where to go from here? I’ve often said that one way or another, in American democracy, you end up with the government you deserve. We elected Bush, so we deserve exactly what we got. We paid attention to fear, therefore we deserve exactly what we got. Individual objections are irrelevant. As a society we asked for it and we got it…in stereo and technicolor. And don’t give me any crap about rigged elections or hanging chads or Supreme Courts. They’re just excuses. In a democracy (or even a republic like ours) the voters are ultimately responsible for putting the person in the big chair.

We set the tone really. What tone will we set? Whose music will we dance to; theirs (the media, the candidates, the parties, the vested interests) or ours?

Or do we even feel like dancing at all?

Time will tell. So turn off the polls on CNN, as they are pretty much meaningless until September anyway, and just enjoy the summer. Come September, the crap will come.

It always does.

~ by Sean on June 19, 2008.