the anti-political political post about politics and non-politics. last one. ever.
last one. i'm done.
So, it was kind of a secret, but I did some volunteer work for the Obama campaign. I made a few phone calls but mostly I just entered data for the rest of the monkeys. I'll be honest, I don't care one way or another about Obama. So why am I doing this?
I was bored. I wanted to see how a campaign was run. I wanted to be angry and fired-up. I wanted to be one of those little cogs that can effect change on a grand scale despite crushing opposition. (Plus, they had brownies.) Mostly there was a lot of fanfare and slogan tossing and soon I realized how different this was from poli-punks running around with petitions and protest signs. This was just…politics.
But I stayed. Refusing to make calls at this point, (the scripts were blatant manipulation. Or 'persuasion' they called it. Something I feel very strongly against) but I did a lot of data entry. I figured it was the least amount of damage I could do for something I don't back 100%. All the time I'm typing away I ask myself why I'm even here and all I could think of is 'Look! All around me are people with hope! And passion! And drive! And it's so good to be around so many people who haven't been absorbed by all the cynisim and despair that I'm so frequently exposed to. How uplifting!' - and it WAS good, and I was close, but it wasn't the reason. And it wasn't enough to make me compromise my own ethics and go back on the phones. Even though, isn't that essentially what politics are all about? Emotional and financial manipulation? Why on Earth am I agreeing to be a part of this?
My honest opinion: McCain is an asshole, Obama's all talk. Talk talk talk talk talk. A friend of mine put it best when he said "Watch, when he gets into office. See how fast nothing changes." And he's right. There's no point in backing any politician because you're only going to wind up disappointed when yet another of your heroes prostrates themselves for the big corporations and/or starts bombing any country with a tan. I recognize the need for authority and government but I don't believe our system works as well as it could and as long as there is more greed than good in the world no one in office is to be trusted. But despite all this I STILL work on the campaign and I'll tell you why.
It's all of the hope I have left for the American people.
(How fatalist is that?) I don't mean, of coarse, you - personally. Or me. Our families. Our co-workers. Our friends. I mean us as a nation. The unique thing about this election is that - for the most part - the candidates are polar opposites on the majority of issues. ESPECIALLY issues the president himself has very little control over. Issues which are mostly matters of state, not federal law. Or state, leading to federal law. (Which still has to be passed by a congressional majority before the president can veto. Which he won't if the majority of the U.S. population has shown vetoing 'X' bill would not be in his best political interest as a leader.) So when you really boil it down, fuck the candidates. They don't really matter. Not to us little guys. What does matter is how we as a people feel about the way things are run. Our values. Our morals. If everyone in the nation believed maggots were a tasty treat laws would be passed so we could sell them in restaurants.
That said, this year I AM voting on the soft-shoe issues of no real consequence. Which of the candidates supporters are for ending wars. Which are pro-choice, for the gay-rights movement, for helping the poor and for bettering our schools. I want to know who believes we should better our foreign policy and 'make nice' with those nations we have wronged in the past. I don't believe in Barrack, hell no! but I believe in the people who do. I'm tired of living in a nation despised by the world as a war-mongering bully. And just maybe if we vote blue this election it will at least appear that we are evolving.
Smoke'n'mirrors.
Anyway that's how I see it. Maybe I'm wrong.
I'm not going to make up my mind until election day. And I'm not going to judge anyone who disagrees with me.
Love and cupcakes,
- Stacie Joy
So, it was kind of a secret, but I did some volunteer work for the Obama campaign. I made a few phone calls but mostly I just entered data for the rest of the monkeys. I'll be honest, I don't care one way or another about Obama. So why am I doing this?
I was bored. I wanted to see how a campaign was run. I wanted to be angry and fired-up. I wanted to be one of those little cogs that can effect change on a grand scale despite crushing opposition. (Plus, they had brownies.) Mostly there was a lot of fanfare and slogan tossing and soon I realized how different this was from poli-punks running around with petitions and protest signs. This was just…politics.
But I stayed. Refusing to make calls at this point, (the scripts were blatant manipulation. Or 'persuasion' they called it. Something I feel very strongly against) but I did a lot of data entry. I figured it was the least amount of damage I could do for something I don't back 100%. All the time I'm typing away I ask myself why I'm even here and all I could think of is 'Look! All around me are people with hope! And passion! And drive! And it's so good to be around so many people who haven't been absorbed by all the cynisim and despair that I'm so frequently exposed to. How uplifting!' - and it WAS good, and I was close, but it wasn't the reason. And it wasn't enough to make me compromise my own ethics and go back on the phones. Even though, isn't that essentially what politics are all about? Emotional and financial manipulation? Why on Earth am I agreeing to be a part of this?
My honest opinion: McCain is an asshole, Obama's all talk. Talk talk talk talk talk. A friend of mine put it best when he said "Watch, when he gets into office. See how fast nothing changes." And he's right. There's no point in backing any politician because you're only going to wind up disappointed when yet another of your heroes prostrates themselves for the big corporations and/or starts bombing any country with a tan. I recognize the need for authority and government but I don't believe our system works as well as it could and as long as there is more greed than good in the world no one in office is to be trusted. But despite all this I STILL work on the campaign and I'll tell you why.
It's all of the hope I have left for the American people.
(How fatalist is that?) I don't mean, of coarse, you - personally. Or me. Our families. Our co-workers. Our friends. I mean us as a nation. The unique thing about this election is that - for the most part - the candidates are polar opposites on the majority of issues. ESPECIALLY issues the president himself has very little control over. Issues which are mostly matters of state, not federal law. Or state, leading to federal law. (Which still has to be passed by a congressional majority before the president can veto. Which he won't if the majority of the U.S. population has shown vetoing 'X' bill would not be in his best political interest as a leader.) So when you really boil it down, fuck the candidates. They don't really matter. Not to us little guys. What does matter is how we as a people feel about the way things are run. Our values. Our morals. If everyone in the nation believed maggots were a tasty treat laws would be passed so we could sell them in restaurants.
That said, this year I AM voting on the soft-shoe issues of no real consequence. Which of the candidates supporters are for ending wars. Which are pro-choice, for the gay-rights movement, for helping the poor and for bettering our schools. I want to know who believes we should better our foreign policy and 'make nice' with those nations we have wronged in the past. I don't believe in Barrack, hell no! but I believe in the people who do. I'm tired of living in a nation despised by the world as a war-mongering bully. And just maybe if we vote blue this election it will at least appear that we are evolving.
Smoke'n'mirrors.
Anyway that's how I see it. Maybe I'm wrong.
I'm not going to make up my mind until election day. And I'm not going to judge anyone who disagrees with me.
Love and cupcakes,
- Stacie Joy