Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Campaign Blues

Are you tired of the election yet? I'm getting there. I'm tired of the way this thing has degenerated. Everything that can go wrong in this country has gone wrong. Everything costs more, while wages have barely, if at all, kept up. The federal government has decided to prop up Wall Street, while struggling homeowners are left hanging. The situation in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate and no one notices. And the candidates spend more time arguing about who represents "real" change than they do presenting "real" solutions.

I'm tired of Sarah Palin and chatter about pit bulls and lipstick. I'm tired of the word "maverick." I'm also tired of "hope," because the longer this goes on, the less hope I have. I do have one hope: to never again hear the phrase "red meat." Shut up, Keith Olbermann. I'm tired, most of all, of you and all the rest of the pundits who live with you in punditville.

It would take so little to please me. All I want is to hear some honest discussion about the actual issues that we face, and to hear some honest debate about proposed solutions to those issues. I'm not sure this will happen between now and November, not even at the "debates," which, like the rest of the campaigns, are likely to become more about style than they are about substance. What substance can be presented in highly vetted, two-minute long sound bites? Don't the candidates, and I mean all of them, not just the Presidential candidates but also Congressional, statehouse, even candidates for coroner and dogcatcher, don't they understand that voters are worried about the real state of our nation and not about which party controls which body of government?

But of course I won't be able to help myself. I'll continue reading the coverage every morning, I'll watch the debates, I'll continue to be in a state of agitation until it's all over and then I'll vow, as I do every four years, to not care so much next time, to become sanguine, to let democracy take its course, no matter how I feel about the course it is taking. After all, I only have one vote. I'll cast it, as always, and "hope" for the best.

2 comments:

J. SPIKE ROGAN said...

lately only Mike Malloy holds my interest. This election has been my rehab ƒrom being a political junkie.

To refrence "POP" culture has 2008 made me Amy Wienhouse?

No,no no.

I don't smoke rocks.

Has it made America Amy Wienhouse?

YES!

This election is crack for the masses.

Its the Ultimate Reality Show. The winner moves into the whitehouse.

I'm shocked no midgets made the final cut for either party. If Danny Devito was not on "Its always sunny" maybe Obama would have picked him to challenge Palin.

Talk about Lipstick on a pitbull/pig. More like lipstick on a dipstick! (Multi use punch line there.)

The Valley will go to Obama in a landslide. The experts feel Scranton is the town to decide PA.

GOD HELP US ALL!

SCRANTON PA!

The most famous refrence to Scranton all comedies. From Edith Bunkers cousin (not Maud), to the low point for Woody Harrelson in "Kingpin" where he asks his neighbor "hows life?" To which the neighbor replies "taking forever!"

And oh some show called the Office is based in Scranton on a BBC ripoff.

I wonder if I can find a job in Dublin?

Not Dublin PA!

Anonymous said...

we get 30 percent of what is happening in govt if we r lucky.until someone screws up and somebody witnessed it and TALKS.there is no use 2 discuss politics because we r not well informed anyway.when u r drinking try 2 discuss how u r going 2 look in the morning after tying one on the nite before.tunsie.tunsie.tunsie