I'm tired of the presidential race
I'm tired of the presidential race. I know, that's a cliché thing to say...everybody's tired of the presidential race already. The people in Iowa probably want to kill themselves right about now. It's not that I'm tired of hearing the candidates' opinions on the serious issues of the day. Problem is, what little I'm hearing about that is drowned out by so much other noise that I can't hear myself think, let alone what they think. This morning in the New York Times Maureen Dowd wrote a column about the fact that we judge candidates so much by their looks and how that could turn out to be such a disadvantage for Hillary because we're not used to watching women age on television.
There are a lot of things I don't care about in this election. I don't care whether the candidate is religious or not. If the candidate is religious, I don't care what the religion is, as long as he or she has no plan for imposing it on me. I think there are candidates who want to impose their religion on me, not necessarily by missionary tactics but by their policy priorities. So I won't be voting for them.
I also don't care a lot about what the candidates say about each other. It's not the way to learn about them. I know, negative campaigning works. That doesn't make it less irritating. And why do we believe what they say about each other? They'll all bash each other in the primary, and then whoever's elected will put some of his or her former opponents in the cabinet because their good qualities have suddenly been rediscovered and all the bad stuff was just good-natured campaigning.
Mostly what I don't care about is what they look like. If I did, I'd send all of my meager savings to Colin Farrell, harass him to join the race, and be arrested as a psycho stalker. Or I'd just vote for my two year old nephew, cuz although he doesn't talk much yet, he's awfully cute. No, I don't care that some people think that George Bush looks like Alfred E. Neumann (sorry, he does), or what Hillary's hair looks like from one day to the next.
Here are a few of the things I do care about:
Supreme Court Justices - I'm into judges who believe the Constitution exists to protect me.
Health Care - Everyone deserves it. And it costs taxpayers a lot more to support a system for people who don't have insurance than to provide the health care coverage in the first place. Yes, it's a complicated problem. Let's solve it.
Education - Where to begin. Here's the latest brilliant idea, let's close schools when kids don't do well on standardized tests. Then we'll have fewer bad schools. Until we have to put those kids in the schools that are performing well, making them overcrowded and underfunded, so then they can become bad schools too. Here's a thought, let's put some resources into making the bad schools good schools. Also, I'm starting a pool on whether my nephew, who lives in Kansas, will be learning evolution in school. Guess I better brush up on my biology knowledge.
Immigration - There are serious issues to be discussed about immigration. Let's quit equating poor Mexicans with ideologue terrorists.
Foreign Policy - I want the U.S. to be a factor in making the world a better, safer place. I want the mess in Iraq cleaned up. I want to know whether Iran is working on nuclear weapons, and if they are, I want them to stop. I want peace in the Middle East. I want an end to genocide and starvation in Africa.
Environment - Maybe we can avoid all the issues if we just let the planet burn up.
Mostly, I want people to care about these issues - whether they agree with me on them or not. I want people to be engaged. I want people to understand that what the president thinks matters. And that whether or not he has hair plugs doesn't.
There are a lot of things I don't care about in this election. I don't care whether the candidate is religious or not. If the candidate is religious, I don't care what the religion is, as long as he or she has no plan for imposing it on me. I think there are candidates who want to impose their religion on me, not necessarily by missionary tactics but by their policy priorities. So I won't be voting for them.I also don't care a lot about what the candidates say about each other. It's not the way to learn about them. I know, negative campaigning works. That doesn't make it less irritating. And why do we believe what they say about each other? They'll all bash each other in the primary, and then whoever's elected will put some of his or her former opponents in the cabinet because their good qualities have suddenly been rediscovered and all the bad stuff was just good-natured campaigning.
Mostly what I don't care about is what they look like. If I did, I'd send all of my meager savings to Colin Farrell, harass him to join the race, and be arrested as a psycho stalker. Or I'd just vote for my two year old nephew, cuz although he doesn't talk much yet, he's awfully cute. No, I don't care that some people think that George Bush looks like Alfred E. Neumann (sorry, he does), or what Hillary's hair looks like from one day to the next.
Here are a few of the things I do care about:
Supreme Court Justices - I'm into judges who believe the Constitution exists to protect me.
Health Care - Everyone deserves it. And it costs taxpayers a lot more to support a system for people who don't have insurance than to provide the health care coverage in the first place. Yes, it's a complicated problem. Let's solve it.
Education - Where to begin. Here's the latest brilliant idea, let's close schools when kids don't do well on standardized tests. Then we'll have fewer bad schools. Until we have to put those kids in the schools that are performing well, making them overcrowded and underfunded, so then they can become bad schools too. Here's a thought, let's put some resources into making the bad schools good schools. Also, I'm starting a pool on whether my nephew, who lives in Kansas, will be learning evolution in school. Guess I better brush up on my biology knowledge.
Immigration - There are serious issues to be discussed about immigration. Let's quit equating poor Mexicans with ideologue terrorists.
Foreign Policy - I want the U.S. to be a factor in making the world a better, safer place. I want the mess in Iraq cleaned up. I want to know whether Iran is working on nuclear weapons, and if they are, I want them to stop. I want peace in the Middle East. I want an end to genocide and starvation in Africa.
Environment - Maybe we can avoid all the issues if we just let the planet burn up.
Mostly, I want people to care about these issues - whether they agree with me on them or not. I want people to be engaged. I want people to understand that what the president thinks matters. And that whether or not he has hair plugs doesn't.
