Here I am, on the moringing of Day One at Lollapalooza and I’m thinking about the presidential race.
Maybe it’s because I’m going to walk by Obama’s house on the way to the bus into downtown, past his security detail and past a whole bunch of black people wearing bootleg Obama shirts that say: “The Dream” and picture their candidate, MLK Jr., Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X. Maybe it’s this article in The Wall Street Journal that asks: “Is McCain Stupid?”
I can’t put my finger on it, but I’ve slowly been bitching to people to form my opinion, and now that it’s coagulated: this election sucks. It has the chance of sucking all the way through.
Don’t get me wrong, the first black president will do a lot of good for this country’s image and another old, white president could decimate the moral of the liberals who have seen their “anybody but Bush” candidates fail by narrow margins for two elections in a row (I used to compain about the 2000 election, but 8 years have passed and Recount has come out on HBO and - honestly - I don’t want to be the guy that bitches about a “stolen” election a decade after it happened or didn’t).
The thing is, I think people are actually paying LESS attention to the politics.
Stumping around Boulder with Jared Polis, we would ask people who they planned to vote for. Specifically, I would ask them: “Do you know who you are going to vote for in the Primary on the 12th?” because the first few times I simply asked: “Do you know who you are going to vote for?” the knee-jerk response would be “Obama.”
These are registered democrats, so I imagine they do want to vote for Obama. But, an automatic response when I’m standing there, asking about a different election and a different ballot, ready to talk to them abut the candidate I actually know and policies I actually understand in great detail…it’s just sad.
People are going to go out and vote based on media coverage, which is not politics. Then, when whomever moves into the White House, the public will lull itself back to sleep on something else. Maybe Britney Spear’s rumored December comeback album will actually work because the 24-hour-”news” channels will realize that the election being over puts a 12-hour dent in their coverage, barring a natural disaster.
Everyday, I glance at the news and it’s some sort of speculation about who the VPs are going to be or if the Obama’s Access Hollywood interview bumped up his numbers. No one is talking about voting records or policies anymore, and it is NOW that America is tuning in. NOW is the time to push policy before your opponent. Most people have NO IDEA about the finer points of Obama or McCain’s campaign, and I count myself among them.
How are we going to fix Social Security without raising payroll taxes? Where’s our alternative energy time-table? Yeah, we’re maybe getting out of Iraq, but how and how much real money does that save us? Where do the candidates back congress in the re-allocation of that money? Do we even get it or is half-a-trillion nation debt basically enough to reduce our dollar to a third-rate currency?
Most importantly: Regardless of what party you represent, what are you going to do about re-establishing a system of checks and balances when the current administration has shat all over the Constitution for seven years?
None of this is being discussed, because the election has become a pop culture event.
Hell, Ludacris released a pro-Obama song yesterday and - SURPRISE! - no mention of the issues.
It’s not enough to get people to vote, and it’s only a novelty if you elect the first black president because he promises something as ambiguous as “Change.”
I really hope that come August 25th, when most news stations switch to DNC coverage, that we start talking about these things. And, despite what I’ve said to some of you, I actually don’t hope that the debates are more about having a young black guy out-talk an old white guy.
What’s the point in electrifying a nation with a political race if there isn’t any politics invovled and people don’t learn anything?
This Presidential Race sucks.
In 2000, you had “the lockbox” and in 2004, we were unable to side-step the “flip-flopping” issue.
This race doesn’t even have buzzword. “Change?” It’s the same old non-politics PR election we usually see.
I’m going to go see Lollapalooza.
Filed under: Politics, Rants, Election 08, McCain, Obama |
