11.04.2008

Election Fever

I am feeling excited, like I used to get when I was a kid, watching the elections results and being highly aware that something very cool was going on.

Every four years, Americans have the opportunity to have a revolution. An orderly, quiet, walk-in-and-vote-'em-out revolution.

I know I am not alone, feeling that I'd just like to hear people discussing issues instead of someone's hair, or age, or race, or level of patriotism -- seriously, so tired of that one.

My intention never was to have a political blog. When I started this blog, I had no focus at all, just general snarky observations, posted some photos, that was it. Yes, I know I recently posted samples of anti-Democrat comments from trollers, and then in a fit of laziness I posted that jpeg of an anti-Palin button. But it’s because I have been feeling a political rant coming on for weeks, ever since I read someone’s comment that said, “Barack Obama is a Marxist.”

Why have our political discussions devolved into name-calling? More importantly, why is everyone okay with it? It’s like being in a household with parents who are constantly bickering. You want to say to them, “Would you guys just get a divorce already? Don’t stay together for us!”

In 1972, during the Nixon-McGovern race, I was on a school bus with 60 or so fellow middle-schoolers, and for some reason I mentioned that I was for McGovern. This was a stupid thing to admit in any crowd, but I grew up in a town that had no registered Democrats until my parents moved there in 1950, so I was admitting this on a bus full of young Republicans, and was basically asking for trouble, just yelling “fire!” in a crowded theater.

So this kid I had known since grade school, this girl Wendy – never a friend, she was an annoying little shit, a brat and a bully who is probably raising a brood of brats and bullies -- turns around and, with real venom, fires at me, “McGovern is a Communist.”

Now, everybody knows that when you are 13, most of your views about life are still heavily influenced by your parents. You’re not quite at full-rebellion age yet, and there are some things, like politics, you may never rebel against. So clearly Wendy heard that in her house from her Republican parents, who may or may not have been exaggerating to prove a point. In any event, like an idiot, I tried to reason with her:

“If McGovern is a Communist, then Nixon is a Fascist.”

To my surprise, she did not see the correlation I was trying to illustrate. I imagine this was a section of the SATs that would totally stump her, if she indeed ever took the SATs.

“No he’s not!” she yelled at me. Really yelled, like I had insulted her father or kicked her dog.

But this is our two-party system. It’s not politics, it’s sports teams. I’m a Mets fan. Do I stop being a Mets fan when they start playing like the 1962 Mets? Sure, if they keep it up long enough. I’ll stop going to Shea, I’ll stop watching televised games. I might even consider rooting for the Cardinals, or the Red Sox, or the Phillies. I do not, however, become a Yankees fan. Yes, I am like a lot of Americans.

On this election day, it is my sincere hope that one day Americans will learn to stop hating each other for the color of their state.

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