Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The Undeciders

The onset of cooler weather and the ramping up of the Republican vote stealing apparatus makes me want to run off to a cabin with a wood stove and sit there tying fishing lures until the election is over. The fact that McCain is slightly leading in the polls (though not in the electoral college) is evidence that most Americans don’t have the intellectual rigor to investigate the cause of their discontent and vote accordingly. Strident McCain supporters are mostly made up of an aggregate of the super-rich and the intellectually incurious and no amount of reason is going to woo them to the Democratic ticket. However, the undecided voters, especially those of modest means, drive me up a fucking tree.

Talk about voting against your self-interest! Undecided voters have to be uneducated or uninformed and if the polls are to be believed, seemingly have no ability to analyze a complex decision. That lack of intellectual curiosity is what allows Grandpa McSame to run under the mantle of change despite the fact that the Republican Party has been in power for most of the last 20 years and is the principal reason the economy is going belly-up. It’s the reason a long-term ultra rich senator with deep ties to lobbyists and a history of scandal (Keating Five anyone? The bailout cost American taxpayers $3.4 billion.) can run on a platform of reforming Washington. It’s the reason McCain can pick an equally wealthy and corrupt running mate who ripped off the Alaska State Treasury to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars and portray her as a squeaky clean suburban mom. Get the picture? They lie, but they do it draped in the American flag while waving a bloody steak and a six pack of Budweiser. People have no idea how fucked up this country can still get. Drill now? Who gives a fuck? Gay marriage? Who gives a fuck? This election is about the survival of America as a country, but most Americans are too goddamn lazy to pick their heads out of a bag of Doritos long enough to realize what’s at stake.

Unfortunately, the mockery of intellectualism that Republicans have advanced with great gusto has inexorably led to a dumbing down of society as a whole. I would have to guess this was their strategy all along. An intellectual populace would never swallow Republican Party platform. As always, America elects its Presidents not on the basis of what they promise, but whether they project “leadership” even if their ideas are morally and intellectually bankrupt. McCain has already won.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

umm, sorry, but what does inexorably mean?

Mark said...

That's funny. But in case there are any Republicans who really do have trouble with the big words in the post: "not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped : relentless i.e. inexorable progress

Anonymous said...

I agree with you, Patriot. It's ridiculous that the Republicans equate intellectualism with elitism and sneer at such noble pursuits as community service.I quake when I see the puff pieces the media thrown Sarah Palin's way. Is this the same liberal media they claim is so biased against them? Seriously, Sarah Palin is being celebutized. Rather than electing a president in November, we are now electing a vice president in a Miss Congeniality contest. Who's to blame you may wonder. Perhaps we all are. Unfortunately, by referring to yahoos and flyover states, you fall right in line with what the Republican stereotype of the coastal liberal. Perhaps we should all stop the sneering and name calling and try to rebuild concensus in this country.

Mark said...

The Democratic congress has tried to work across the aisle since 2006 and you see where that got them. No, I will not compromise with fascists. I am a proud eastern arugula eating elitist liberal. We ARE smarter. We don't believe Jesus, Adam and Eve walked through the forest with the dinosaurs 5000 years ago. I'm all for educating the denizens of Bumfuckistan but I won't pretend that I respect them to start a dialogue.

Anonymous said...

While on Hurrication in Birmingham, Alabama, I had the pleasure of speaking to the manager of Pine Bowls Bowling Alley. We started talking politics and he told me he wouldn't vote for Obama. When I asked why not, he said, I just can't vote for a man who has Hussein as a middle name. He said, he might not like me cause I got Brown for a last name, but I sure can't vote for a man with such a middle name. This might sound sad, painful and even funny, but what he is saying essentially is he cannot relate to this man. Here, in the city that basically gave birth to the civil rights movement, I really had the sense that what he was saying is, shit, man, I don't care if he would be the best president ever, I can't vote for a black man with a terrorists' middle name, are you outta your mind. In short, for him it is more important that for him to identify with a candidate, than said candidate's qualifications or lack of them. This makes Sarah Palin the perfect slice of apple pie. It is not about her qualifications or lack thereof but that the walmart maam can identify with her and the home depot dad can imagine fishing with the first dude. If the American people want this bullshit, then calling them every foul and insulting name imaginable is justified because they are idiots.