Don’t blame me, I voted for Kodos…
They say about me that I am the strangest person, always making people confused. -Socrates
As promised, I didn’t talk about politics for almost a week and a half. It was incredibly difficult to accomplish considering that a good chunk of my public journal is devoted to that particular aspect of this brave new century. But behold, I have resurfaced from the safety of an allegorical cave. This is quite possibly my last post of this magnitude since Osama Bin Laden threatened to attack any state that votes for Bush. Texas will probably be next after Utah, so I’ll see what happens tomorrow morning.
Before any losers decide to unleash their verbal diarrhea via AIM, I’d like to ask that you write out your bullshit as a comment on my journal. I don’t screen comments, and the only reason I will ever delete a comment is if you attack another commenter. I’ve been reduced to begging people to argue with me here instead of sending instant messages, most of which are recycled arguments I’ve already countered. I keep an open border policy when it comes to AIM, and I don’t want to become “buddy list only” because I’ve received some positive comments via AIM from people who don’t even have journals that I enjoy receiving. For those choosing to read further, this is the story of a dude trying to make sense of his country’s history, it’s citizens, and the obligation all of us have towards ensuring that America will never again be intimidated into a dangerous situation such as the 2004 Election.
Disclaimer: Some younger readers may be alarmed by the gratuitous profanity used within this entry. Perhaps I may even mention some slang you’ve never heard before. So, sorry if I scar you for life. Some older readers may suffer from cardiac arrest due to the frustration that stems from the instances of stupidity I address. So, sorry if I kill you.
I talk of freedom. You talk of the flag. I talk of revolution. You'd much rather brag. And as the decibels of this disenchanting discourse continue to dampen the day…
To avoid the inevitable bloody revolution brought on by the natural order of mankind’s dabbles with government , our founding fathers decided to build a system of elections so that every four years there is a revolution in the leadership of this country. It was an excellent idea, but it had it’s share of problems. In order to make the elections fair, they put into place the electoral college. Each colony, depending on their population, was givin a certain number of electoral votes. Winning the majority of electoral votes meant winning the election. This helped organize the elections in all sorts of ways, most notably the fact that there was no major media outlet to inform the nation at large. At the time women weren’t allowed to vote, and neither were blacks. In the modern world, women and people of color are free to vote (or not vote). The system changed to allocate the spirit of patriotism, to ensure that the ideals of equality were shared by all citizens of this country.
Today, 11 states voted in favor of an amendment banning gay marriage. There are no practical reasons why this debate should have even been pushed into the media as a political issue. I refuse to believe that the same men and women who gave their lives for generations of Americans to live in freedom, fought to have that very freedom taken away in the same democratic process they sacrificed everything to ensure survived.
The coin flips again and again, and again, and again as our sanity walks away. All this discussion, though politically correct, is dead beyond destruction…
Standing in line, I prepared to cast my votes with the exception of President. In the past week and a half, I still couldn’t find any redeeming value in any candidate. I began to think about the same personal sacrifices I mentioned earlier. It was because of them that I may have a choice…the choice to follow my conscience even when it’s not in sync with the majority. However, I gave into peer pressure, mass market influence, and everything else that I felt betrayed my sense of justification. I pulled out a quarter from my pocket, one of those Texas commemorative looking quarters. I started tossing it up, trying to decide which side I would place the candidates. Then, an elderly woman behind me commented that it’d be ridiculous if people voted like that. I replied, “Isn’t it sad?” She just smiled and let her eyes wonder off. When it came down to it, the coin said…
We have kids being robbed of valuable self-education just so they can score high on standardized tests, which only serve to allow school districts to be allocated additional state funds for even more tests. We have families who’ve endured job loss, sometimes multiple job losses, and are too poor to improve their way of life, yet too rich to qualify for even temporary government aid. We’re setting up healthcare programs and education systems for the people in Iraq with American tax dollars. People are evangelicals, businessmen, and politicians before they are human beings. Fuck all this foreign policy advocate bullshit. We have nothing to prove to anyone but ourselves. If they don’t like it, let them kick us out of the UN. If they don’t want to do business with us, don’t import our shit. Fuck those assholes, we’re America, and we don’t need shit…except for the things we practically get for free from locations of US occupation. We have our own battles to fight here in the homeland, things that have nothing to do with terrorism or our ties to an international community full of proven criminals. We live in a society of victims, and rather than push each other towards productivity, we just allow them to wallow in their self pity. Not every vote counts in America, this isn’t India.
For some reason, this election year brought out the idiot on a lot of people. Never before have I seen so many people proud to choose whichever “lesser of two evils” they felt should lead our country. Watching television, reading the newspapers, and conversing with my peers…I almost felt like taking off my blindfold completely. People just had the urge to make a statement, but they either forgot the period at the end of the sentence, or placed too many exclamation marks.
And as the final sunset rolls behind the earth, and the clock is finally dead. I'll look at you, you'll look at me
and we'll cry a lot. But, this will be what we said…
If you’ve managed to read this far, I thank you. I’m taking an indefinite hiatus back to the cave, just until things cool down. I’ll leave you by saying the government is afraid to eliminate the electoral college. For the vote to be decided by popularity, that opens the door up for numerous 3rd party candidates to come in, and “steal” votes from the Democrats and Republicans. Also, if a candidate didn’t have a decisive majority, there would have to be a run-off election. But I question, is two elections really going out of our way when it eventually gives a voice to every voter? We can never be the same again after this election, and I sincerely hope not. We’re so much better than this, all of us.
Look where all this talking got us, baby.