Quote:
The answer is e, obviously.
Okay, so, does that mean the parties are now merely competing brands, in the sense that Coke and Pepsi, or Tide and Cheer are competing brands? If that's the case, does it truly matter who actually wins any race for any office -- because in the end, you'll just end up with one corporate lackey or another, right?
Here's the thing: There's no way in hell I'd vote for any of the current Democrat candidates because they preach the same damn message that every Democrat has deliverd since at least 1932. You can make the same argument about most of the Republicans except Ron Paul, who has as much chance of winning the nomination as I have of being named Miss America. It's to the point where you can predict every word out of every candidate's mouth from here till Nov. 2008 without even thinking about it. We know the Democrats are cowardly, illegal-immigrant-loving appeasers who want to abort every baby in America, hate God, like to dunk crucifixes in jars of pee, want to impoverish everyone through their luddite economic and environmental policies, and promote lasciviousness and a breakdown of cutural mores; and we know Republicans are hicks who drive pickups, knock up their sisters, say "Jeeee-zusss!" a lot, hate anyone who isn't white, like to start wars, want the world to live in a toxic waste wonderland, and don't know Miles Davis from Dizzy Gllespie, other than a couple culturally astute Republicans might recognize them as just a couple of them thar dead Negoes. That about covers both the election and the Madison Avenue-fed cultural divide, doesn't it?
As I've said before, America's politics have become infested with bad dialectics at every turn: Iraq, race, abortion, homosexuality, careers, what fuel to burn in cars, and even marriage are being dissected, and the people are forced to choose between Brand L and Brand C whether they like it or not. Facts are distorted, massaged, and conveniently forgotten in order to ensure that if you're not with me on Iraq, for example, well, by God, you're a nationalist and a fascist, or a coward and a seditionist. The great common ground that pushed us forward and built the sense of community that America used to have is essentially gone, and it likely won't reappear until the people stop allowing ourselves to be bought and sold by our own money, and our ideas to come from other people instead of from ourselves.
And no, I haven't become some damn candyass liberal. I'm just sick of watching the country as a whole and an awful lot of its individual people flush away untold promise and talent and potential greatness for no reason other than that's the safe thing to do, or because it's easier that way, or because you can't possibly succeed in doing things other than according to what money says to do. And I know that most people, regardless of race or sex or party affiliation or income, feel the same way. But we can't change -- not because we don't want to, but because we're afraid to. We're afraid that if we step outside the box, we'll get swatted down and lose what little we have; and most people aren't willing to take that risk. So we keep getting mediocre candidates with mediocre track records, but whom we're told are brilliant people with charm, charisma, and fresh ideas. How the fuck can anyone say Hillary Clinton has a fresh idea, when she's recycling the same ideas that her husband ran on, and Walter Mondale before him, and Lyndon Johnson and Adlai Stevenson and Harry Truman and FDR before him? Same with the Republicans, with the Bushes, Reagan, Nixon, etc. How are we supposed to actually fix what's really wrong with America if our only options are repackaged ideas (products) that we know don't work, but we try them anyway because that's what we're taught to do? Answer: We aren't supposed to actually fix any problems; we're just supposed to
think we're fixing them.
In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, "Don't blame me -- I voted for Kodos!"
