I haven't written in almost a week for a couple of reasons. First, I collapsed with some sort of horrifically nasty flu last Friday, the day after the RNC closed its convention. It all felt very metaphorical and not good. Second, I really just...and I'm not being melodramatic here...I just don't even know where to fucking start. I'm not sure whether I want to attack them anymore because I think that's what they want. They're like the blob now - growing stronger with every breath anyone utters to refute the gelatinous bullshit they're spreading all over America. They've chosen to feed on the cheapest, most cynical form of fuel known to man - the ignorance and fear of the American people. So I feel like the American people - or at least those who are susceptible to these tactics - are the enemy now. It feels to me like the moment in zombie movies when the flesh-eating undead reach critical mass and the odds begin to diminish for the living.
I've never seen anything so embarassing as the sight of herds of my fellow citizens creaming themselves over the selection of Sarah Palin - as if she would have been their very FIRST choice for the vice-presidency, if only they'd had a fucking clue who she was 13 days ago. They rose up and made her an instant celebrity, raging with unbearable indignation at each news story that revealed yet another inconvenient tidbit about Sarah's past. "How could anyone stoop to say anything negative about this heroic angel we met three days ago?!" "How dare you say a word about her pregnant teenage daughter!" "Look...her son is going to Iraq!" "The media hates women, hates families, hates children, and hates small town values!"
Well look, I've gotten over Sarah Palin. She's a nasty little cunt who doesn't deserve our attention. What DOES deserve our attention is John McCain's judgment in selecting her. It would be laughable if only so American voters weren't a) not much better off than Trig, intellectually speaking, and/or b) desperately looking for a reason not to vote for the black guy. John McCain gave them a perfect reason: She's JUST LIKE YOU.
Much has been said, thanks to the last two presidential elections, about the electorate's preference for the candidate they'd "like to have a beer with." The McCain camp has even acknowledged that this election will be about personalities, not issues, thanks to the Palin pick. It dawned on me yesterday that it's just slightly more complex than a simple popularity contest. Republicans have essentially convinced voters that they can validate their own way of life by voting for the candidate that lives the most like them (or at least pretends to). The office doesn't matter, the issues can go fuck themselves. If you don't pick the gun-toting, pick-up driving, troop-lovin', cowboy or cowgirl, you'll be admitting that facncy-pants ivy-leaguers are better'n you. Never mind the fact that you'd love for your kid to go to Princeton someday. This is about today! This is about not letting the big-city, smart guys win.
Maybe that all sounds very obvious, but I had never considered this slight inversion of the whole culture war issue. I'd always accepted at face value that people were voting on actual cultural issues, not merely trying to justify their own existence with their vote for the President of the United States. That would explain why so many people whose interests are starkly at odds with the policies of John McCain are now considering voting for him. In Sarah Palin, they have a chance to elect one of their own into the White House. "So what if she's not going to improve our lives, she's going to validate our lives!" "She's got five kids!" "She didn't abort the retarded one!" "She's against sex-ed and likes burning books!" That'll show them uppity latte-sippers!
Go for it America. If your egos are so sensitive that you'd rather vote for the guy/gal who acts like you than the one who wants to help you, be my guest. Glorify simple-mindedness until the top 1% has ALL of our money, if that makes you feel better about being an idiot. Thanks for dragging the rest of us into the poorhouse with you, zombie assholes. When we're all down there together, hungry and fighting over scraps, I'm going to have my eye on your flesh.
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