Thursday, April 24, 2008

Day 47-- The Debate

Day 47
Wednesday April 16th
Tonight I crashed pretty early. It was one of those days you can't wait to be over and for tomorrow to start. I caught a bit of the BoSox- Yankees game on the radio. I really enjoy listening in to the boys of summer go at it on the diamond as the afternoon disappears. Don't get me wrong live games at Fenway are a sight to be seen. The sights and sounds and smells of the old ballpark bring back a rush of memories both past and future. Televised games are fun too when you are in the mood. But there is something incredibly simple and unadulterated about fixing the AM rabbit ears to catch the perfect signal to follow the game via radio. Every few innings you have to sit up and readjust before the play-by-play is eaten up by clouds of static. For me that is all part of it, just as much as hot dogs and cracker jacks. The Red Sox lost 15- 9. They were absolutely killed by a mediocre Yank's team. Oh well, the summer has really yet to wake up. Thank goodness there are 160+ games in a season. It does make it a little easier to stomach on a daily basis. Besides folks are just finding there summer legs, it is too early to panic after every loose pitch.

Next up we switched mindset and caught the Democratic Debate.
"Live from Constitution Hall in Philadelphia..." we heard a million times. My day went from poor to just down right bad. You know in all honesty I am so tired of these two bitter people. And I am even more tired people telling me I should care. These two democratic candidates haven't had an original idea in decades, why pray tell should I be excited about their candidacies? In all honesty I was a little excited about this new face on the Dems side. Obama intrigued me. I tried to believe, I really did. Maybe it is just that the whole process has gone on entirely too long. Then again, maybe it hasn't. Why can't we just settle this the old-fashioned way? How abouts pistols at down, that always seems to do the trick.

Despite all this crap about Hope & Change, it really is the same old same old. It is just more of the same. The debate was filled with back-stabbing covered by contrite smiles and diplomatic cross-speak. No one answered a question. Hillary looked like a '50s housewife on meth, almost like a porcelain dummy grinning no matter whose pulling the strings (not dummy as in a stupid person, but dummy as in wooden headed ventriloquist puppet). Obama impressed me as someone not used to being questioned, as if his entire life he never had to face the music and was able to get out of tight situations by simply smiling. Every time he was pressed to answer a direct question, he grimaced like he had gas. He had one talking point and no matter the question, he always went back to the same tired talking point.

In all fairness neither bothered to actually address any of the questions. There is no surprise there. The art of the debate was lost after the very first televised debate between JFK and Nixon. It is now all about looking good and saying nothing. It is not about real answers or original solutions but rather the 30 second sound bite and not saying anything that would give your opponent ammunition for later slur ads. Hillary for her part looked great and almost trustworthy. She had a few sound bites for the morning papers. Obama for his part was dapper and cut an authoritative visual figure as usual. He too had his share of 10- 15 second sound bites to make the evening news writers happy. For the most though it was business as usual in presidential politics.

Overall Obama did say one thing that did really impress me. This debate really drove home the point. In his conclusion he made the point that,
"And most importantly, I believed that change does not happen from the top down. It happens from the bottom up."

If you believe change is coming from your elected officials you are sorely disillusioned. Change starts with you. If you want real change in this country stop shopping at Wal-Mart, stop purchasing crap on credit, stop talking about government bailouts for the lazy and ill-informed, stop driving your damn Hummers & SUVs, stop eating fast food, stop supporting overly subsidized industries with your check book and with your vote. Stop complaining about the state of our world and do something. Stop passing the buck, stop blaming others, stop looking for a political savior. I am talking about active nonchalance. Go out of your way to avoid the establishment. I am not talking about open revolution, but rather an active movement to turn our backs on the debased society we have become.

Wearing a pin with a candidates name on it or slapping a bumper sticker on your SUV or voting for a traditional party candidate does nothing but hinder change. It gives no one hope but the Wall Street fat cats and the upper 1%. Go vote but turn in a totally blank ballot. Tell the world that we believe in the democratic process, but that we disavow the petty indifference in the entrenched parties and there representative candidates. Go vote but turn in a totally blank ballot. Tell the powers that be that you value our rights and responsibilities and you sure as crap wished they would to. Go vote but turn in a totally blank ballot. Tell the traditional parties that they have nothing to offer anymore and it is time for ethem to hit the dusty trail. Go vote but turn in a totally blank ballot. Tell your neighbors that you believe in them and a government governed by men & women who are not career politicians. Go vote but turn in a totally blank ballot. Tell the founders of this great nation to stop turning in their graves, that you finally get it and are working on it.

Go vote but turn in a totally blank ballot, send a message to the enshrined powers that be to go screw themselves. Or go vote for Obama and then join your local church, give as much money as you can to your local synagogue, go pound nails at the local mosque, say a harekrishna nightly to the Hindi floaty thing and hope you covered all your basis so that when the world goes swooshing down the toilet boil you will be able to tread water. (Is anybody still reading this? Woooowie, got a little crazy there hunh! The DTs will do that to a man..., did I mention the Sox dropped a winnable game to those bastards down in NY?)

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