Well, political discourse has sure gotten to be an absolutist, scorched-Earth, take no prisoners affair. I can't get too terribly excited about the Presidential race due to the conclusions I reached in my post, The Puppet Presidency. I have my choice about who I'm going to vote for, but it doesn't matter much, and I don't expect a lot to change regardless of who wins.
First, to pretend you even know who you're voting for is a philosophical fiction. Politicians (at least at the federal level) are such idea whores and chameleons that they have no true beliefs. They'll say anything and be anything to get elected. They get in trouble for this, as Romney did, when their remarks to one group they're speaking to get leaked to another group they're pandering to that happens to hold diametrically opposed values. Embarrassing, but it usually passes into the past faster than a Facebook post.
Nevertheless, a lot of people have been making remarks and Facebook comments and memes that leave no room to really accept the fact that you're living on a planet, and in the same community, and even the same neighborhood, church, and workplace, with people who are going to vote for the other guy. When you equate the other candidate with Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Satan, etc., if you really believe that, then you should be very uneasy walking around town with people who are voting for them. I know you're thinking, "I am very uneasy." But no, I'm dead serious. VERY uneasy. Like psycho stocked up on water and food and guns and ammunition, and garlic and wooden stakes, and barricaded doors and armor-plating in a kind of I Am Legend/Mad Max sort of way. So, since I don't see much of that behavior going on, I have to believe that those who speak such rhetoric, or Share it, or Like it, don't really believe it so much as say it for the relief and release of it. Sometimes things get so confusing and frustrating it feels nice to make simplified radical remarks and damn the consequences or counterarguments. I get that. But, most likely, everybody whose candidate does not win will just get up the next day and go back to work, or maybe buy one of those "Don't Blame Me..." bumper stickers or something expressing a percentage.
I know some people, dear to my heart, who actually espouse the belief the Obama is in fact a Muslim terrorist with secret police who are going to take over after the election. What I can't figure out is why this wasn't accomplished during his first term. Is he just inept at that? When he asks for four more years to "finish the job" are you telling me he's actually referring to his secret Muslim plot to take over America? If so, well, he's a pretty lousy Muslim despot. That should've been accomplished in the infamous "First Hundred Days." It's said that that Presidents reserve their more radical initiatives for their second term. They play it safe the first four years so they don't alienate too many folks. They want to get re-elected. But does that strategy really matter if you're a dictator? If you can't set yourself up as a totalitarian overlord in your first term, I say you're a wuss. You're probably a wuss if you had to be elected in the first place. I'll bet down at the Dictator's Club they laugh at the dude who got into office by election. Military coup - that's the way the big boys play. The only reason I can think of to wait till the second term - to keep the sheep's clothing on until you're sworn in and THEN reveal your true wolfy self - would be if you're toying with all of America in some kind of sadistic James Bond villain style, where you just want to draw out the misery, explain your plan at great length, and maybe rub in the fact that you convinced everyone to vote for Satan not just once, but TWICE. Now that's really something. And then you end the world.
I would also love to see a debate between different conspiracy theorists about whose theory is right. I mean, we've got the secret Muslim terrorist theory vs. the judge in Texas who recently espoused the belief that Obama will let U.N. troops into America to take over. So it's like secret police vs. U.N. troops. Sounds like some kind of Marvel head-to-head issue. And then there are those who think the IRS will fulfill that role just by enforcing healthcare "taxes."
For me, while I may disagree with other people's choices, I can understand and imagine lines of reasoning that justify, for them, their decision. Sometimes I think their facts are faulty, or that they are reacting emotionally instead of logically - but believe me, I've made plenty of emotional decisions (and mistakes). It's the frailty of human nature.
In the good old days, when the whole country seemed to have gone to pot, and everyone seemed crazy and seemed to disagree with you, you loaded up a ship with like-minded folks, had a little sail, found a new chunk of land, conquered the poor natives, and set things up just the way you liked it. Unfortunately, everywhere you go these days, the natives have at least AK-47s, and at least some immunity to whatever diseases your crew is harboring, and they just fight and fight and fight and fight and....taking over new turf just ain't as easy as it used to be.
So I read with interest all the science articles about extra-solar planetary systems, and about recent physics theories postulating that faster-than-light travel and warp drive engines might actually be possible. For that is about the only way out of our current predicament I can see. Then, woe unto extraterrestrials, because here we come with about a hundred different religions and government styles, a bad track record, and not much tolerance.
All I know is, the day after the election, and every future election, I've gotta get up and work and live with ALL the winners and ALL the losers - my friends, neighbors, and countrymen - to continue trying to solve the actual problems of my community - all without any discernible help from the guy who divided us and won.
First, to pretend you even know who you're voting for is a philosophical fiction. Politicians (at least at the federal level) are such idea whores and chameleons that they have no true beliefs. They'll say anything and be anything to get elected. They get in trouble for this, as Romney did, when their remarks to one group they're speaking to get leaked to another group they're pandering to that happens to hold diametrically opposed values. Embarrassing, but it usually passes into the past faster than a Facebook post.
Nevertheless, a lot of people have been making remarks and Facebook comments and memes that leave no room to really accept the fact that you're living on a planet, and in the same community, and even the same neighborhood, church, and workplace, with people who are going to vote for the other guy. When you equate the other candidate with Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Genghis Khan, Satan, etc., if you really believe that, then you should be very uneasy walking around town with people who are voting for them. I know you're thinking, "I am very uneasy." But no, I'm dead serious. VERY uneasy. Like psycho stocked up on water and food and guns and ammunition, and garlic and wooden stakes, and barricaded doors and armor-plating in a kind of I Am Legend/Mad Max sort of way. So, since I don't see much of that behavior going on, I have to believe that those who speak such rhetoric, or Share it, or Like it, don't really believe it so much as say it for the relief and release of it. Sometimes things get so confusing and frustrating it feels nice to make simplified radical remarks and damn the consequences or counterarguments. I get that. But, most likely, everybody whose candidate does not win will just get up the next day and go back to work, or maybe buy one of those "Don't Blame Me..." bumper stickers or something expressing a percentage.
I know some people, dear to my heart, who actually espouse the belief the Obama is in fact a Muslim terrorist with secret police who are going to take over after the election. What I can't figure out is why this wasn't accomplished during his first term. Is he just inept at that? When he asks for four more years to "finish the job" are you telling me he's actually referring to his secret Muslim plot to take over America? If so, well, he's a pretty lousy Muslim despot. That should've been accomplished in the infamous "First Hundred Days." It's said that that Presidents reserve their more radical initiatives for their second term. They play it safe the first four years so they don't alienate too many folks. They want to get re-elected. But does that strategy really matter if you're a dictator? If you can't set yourself up as a totalitarian overlord in your first term, I say you're a wuss. You're probably a wuss if you had to be elected in the first place. I'll bet down at the Dictator's Club they laugh at the dude who got into office by election. Military coup - that's the way the big boys play. The only reason I can think of to wait till the second term - to keep the sheep's clothing on until you're sworn in and THEN reveal your true wolfy self - would be if you're toying with all of America in some kind of sadistic James Bond villain style, where you just want to draw out the misery, explain your plan at great length, and maybe rub in the fact that you convinced everyone to vote for Satan not just once, but TWICE. Now that's really something. And then you end the world.
I would also love to see a debate between different conspiracy theorists about whose theory is right. I mean, we've got the secret Muslim terrorist theory vs. the judge in Texas who recently espoused the belief that Obama will let U.N. troops into America to take over. So it's like secret police vs. U.N. troops. Sounds like some kind of Marvel head-to-head issue. And then there are those who think the IRS will fulfill that role just by enforcing healthcare "taxes."
For me, while I may disagree with other people's choices, I can understand and imagine lines of reasoning that justify, for them, their decision. Sometimes I think their facts are faulty, or that they are reacting emotionally instead of logically - but believe me, I've made plenty of emotional decisions (and mistakes). It's the frailty of human nature.
In the good old days, when the whole country seemed to have gone to pot, and everyone seemed crazy and seemed to disagree with you, you loaded up a ship with like-minded folks, had a little sail, found a new chunk of land, conquered the poor natives, and set things up just the way you liked it. Unfortunately, everywhere you go these days, the natives have at least AK-47s, and at least some immunity to whatever diseases your crew is harboring, and they just fight and fight and fight and fight and....taking over new turf just ain't as easy as it used to be.
So I read with interest all the science articles about extra-solar planetary systems, and about recent physics theories postulating that faster-than-light travel and warp drive engines might actually be possible. For that is about the only way out of our current predicament I can see. Then, woe unto extraterrestrials, because here we come with about a hundred different religions and government styles, a bad track record, and not much tolerance.
All I know is, the day after the election, and every future election, I've gotta get up and work and live with ALL the winners and ALL the losers - my friends, neighbors, and countrymen - to continue trying to solve the actual problems of my community - all without any discernible help from the guy who divided us and won.
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