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Dalton
Roberts |
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If it’s acceptable for the drug companies to run 500 ads a day about erectile dysfunction, surely it will not be offensive for me to admit that I have electile dysfunction. I find myself completely unable to get aroused or excited over any of the choices for president. I got my pistol out, pulled back the hammer and held it to my head for two nights, forcing myself to watch both the Republican and Democratic debates. I had to fire it into the air a couple of times when I saw I was going to sleep. By the time I saw both debates, I had to call a couple of friends over to wrestle the gun away from me. I wanted to place the barrel between my eyes and pull the trigger. The main problem is they are all boring. The Republicans are all clustered together over on the extreme right between Franco and Frankenstein, shivering at the thought of offending the theocrats that want God to run the country, through them, of course. They are all so similar you could not slide a sheet of onionskin paper between them. About once in each debate Ron Paul will break away from the pack long enough to make sense on some issue like the Iraq War. Not another one of them has uttered a word about the flawed intelligence reports that got us into that fiscal and political disaster. The Democratic debates are no better – just boring in a different way. If there’s a major difference in Hillary and Barrack on a national health plan it doesn’t show up under my big microscope. Yet the talking heads spend relentless hours talking about some tiny differences. It sounds to me like the insurance and drug industries will be better taken care of than the American people. Maybe they can buy up the rest of the TV time and tell us some more things to talk to our doctor about. Surely there’s no one left who is simple-minded enough to think they know what to talk to their doctor about. In one Democratic debate former senator Gravel used every speaking turn to chastise Clinton and Obama for the campaign chests they have accumulated, pointing out that people do not give you money without some strong expectations. Neither candidate bothered to even respond to his words. I suppose the real reason is they know that we, the people, have accepted the contamination of money in the political process. We do not see that this is the real problem with politics today. We will never be of much interest to the elected as long as special interests own them. Having to listen to the candidates is just the tip of the Boredom Iceberg. The worst part is the 24-hour-a-day hashing and rehashing by the talking heads of every word the candidates speak. They have not said anything significantly different since the first day and we should not be acting like they have. They are as polarized as the candidates. Can you not predict what Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken will say on any issue? It requires no imagination at all and little intelligence. Most of us don’t even bother to vote. We hate politics and politicians. Polls have shown we trust them less than used car salesman and TV evangelists. So tell me why do we set up all these presidential preference primaries, forcing us to see and hear them say the same boring things over and over and then sit like zombies for hours while the talking heads slosh around in it? All the while we know the one we elect will be the one who best polls our prejudices and designs attack ads that punch more of our hate and fear buttons. I feel like an idiot for putting up with it. I wish more people felt that way. Then maybe embarrassment would make us do something about it.
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