Only A Few Weeks To Go

/ Sirius Bizinus

thanksobama

So, I’ve been perfectly quiet about this upcoming election here in the States. Everywhere I look, there’s something to be outraged about or morally opposed to. This election is the MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION EVER – something I’ve heard since 1996. When everyone is screaming, nobody’s listening. There’s been some important issues that have been raised in this election that deserve better attention than what they’re getting.

I’ve wanted to write about some of them, but this cycle has been particularly nasty. There’s some speculation as to why both major candidates aren’t popular, but all this has done is prompted Facebook rants as to who the cleanest dirty shirt is. Nobody’s really talking policy, expertise, and other qualifications for office. Instead, we’ve got two minor party candidates who have seriously blown any chance for legitimate consideration, one major party candidate who seems to be imploding in public, and the final candidate who is trying to survive a long history of attacks against her.

What I can say is that I’ve made up my mind as to who I’m going to vote for. There are a bunch of reasons why I think my decision is a good one. Sadly, none of them matter when the entire race has boiled down to who is the lesser incarnation of pure evil. Rather than have a discussion about qualifications of candidates, policies each candidate wants to implement, and the likelihood that a given candidate will actually get that done, we’re talking about the most sophomoric election cycle in recent memory.

Personally, I’m more dismayed at the fact that my vote will not really do much where I live. Elections for Congress have needed more attention, but there are no decent candidates for me to vote for here. Part of this is because of our primary system, and part of it is because the politics in my state are atrocious.

The worst thing is that my misery won’t fully end when the election is over. Some issues have been raised that need to be discussed more in public (like whether Trump’s locker room talk is okay even for people who aren’t running for public office – pro tip: it’s not). Not only that, but I suspect that there are going to be some other stunts which will extend this terrible experience beyond election day.

I think it’s terrible that I’m starting to miss the days when people would blame stupid stuff on Obama.

12 thoughts on “Only A Few Weeks To Go”

    • I’ve read some similar articles concerning it, but I don’t think they tell the whole story. There was an article on Five Thirty Eight a while back which detailed Ms. Clinton’s approval ratings, and they always dipped in election years. While some of that might be the result of classic sexist attitudes, a lot of it can also be chalked up to standard GOP attacks (i.e., lying, criminal investigations, etc.).

      Moreover, I think that Ms. Clinton is doing a great job of combating sexism in the election. There was a think tank report I read a while ago which detailed how sexism interacts with elections. All of the recommendations to fight against it are being performed by the Clinton campaign. The results of it are pretty drastic.

      There’s a chance she might win some Republican strongholds, including Texas.

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  3. It’s the ugliest, lowest election cycle I can recall. It’s astonishing to me (although not surprising) how low the culture bar has sunk. This silly season is a clear convergence of multiple factors: Our elevation of opinion over truth, of assertion over fact, of populism over correctness, of emotional angst over rational thought.

    Our love of “reality” TV has brought us Trump.

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    • I agree that the celebrity of Trump definitely helped him out, but there’s something else about his candidacy that’s been bothering me for quite some time. Five Thirty Eight did a short film recently about how Perot didn’t cost Bush the Elder the election in 1992. All the GOP people they talked to still blamed Perot despite the evidence to the contrary.

      I mention this because it shows how little the GOP is willing to understand who is voting for them. The polls showed Trump leading for a long time prior to the primaries starting, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone. Trump in a big way is a bunch of chickens coming home to roost, among a whole other bunch of terrible things that have happened over the past few months.

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      • Absolutely! That’s exactly what I meant by “convergence of multiple factors” — many of which are social and political and have little to do with Trump himself. Essentially, the GOP has spent decades training their electorate to respond to noise and nonsense (and literal non-sense), and now they’re stuck with a human monster who is a master of noise and nonsense.

        Trump saw an opportunity, amplified by the success of his birther nonsense. He is a shamelessly evil man, utterly unrepentant with bold-faced (and obvious) lies, and full of bluster and braggadocio.

        What I meant about reality TV wasn’t his show so much as the general tenor and tone of such shows. They are noise and nonsense, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. They’ve conditioned people towards empty voyeuristic emotional conflict for a thrill. (If it’s not obvious, I think “reality TV” is one of the worst things to happen to entertainment. I rank it down with public hangings. It’s a social sickness.)

        As someone with a reverence for truth and reason, it’s hard to express the depth of the horror I feel these days. I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

        Liked by 2 people

      • Ward Smythe (love your moniker, by the way) –
        I agree with you completely about the whole ‘reality’ TV – it’s anything but reality. Can’t stand any of those shows, never could watch them. I am hoping that your sense of desperation will recede, however, when tRump gets tromped on. 🙂 Don’t despair!

        Liked by 1 person

      • Thanks! 🙂 A great deal depends on how badly he loses and what happens next.

        The problem is that the Orange Goblin is a symptom, not a cause, and what scares me is the rising nationalism and populism occurring worldwide.

        The Obama Presidency showed us that racism is still very much alive and still festering in segments of the population. This election cycle has shown that sexism is also still very much alive and festering, as well.

        It often feels like the gains we fought for in the 1960s and 1970s were either much less gain than we realized or that we’re in some sort of post-post-modern era where those gains are forgotten, taken for granted, or allowed to slip away. We seem to have no feel for what has gone before.

        My problem is that I seem to live in a world whose values are almost entirely inverted compared to mine. My only refuge these days is baseball and pre-Star Wars science fiction. 😮

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  5. Best thing I can say about this election is I had 4 people in the car, that all voted against tRump when we all loaded up and went in for early voting.

    Note I did not say for Hillary. It just so happens she is the only viable option against tRump.

    As a guy that really likes to maximize every available amount of everything, I’m pretty pleased there were 4 Hillary votes in the car.

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  6. Wyrd Smythe – Oops! – I typed that reply to you at work, and I see my iPad ‘corrected’ your name without me noticing. .
    I agree with you about the revelation of racism and sexism that has been exposed in the last few years but I tend to be an optimist and I am really hoping that the election will prove that tRump’s toxicity will not be tolerated by the population. I still trust the good judgement of the majority of Americans. Like yours, for example. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thanks! I do believe we’re at a cultural inflection point. The choices we’ve made as a society, and the choices we make from now, are going to be really damn crucial to how we survive as a society. I just hope the anti-intellectual (even anti-rational) currents that have grown stronger in the last 50 years or so — a trend I see as returning to the dark ages of superstition — turn around in time.

      I am appalled, for instance, that cable channels like The Learning Channel feature all these ghost hunter shows and treat ghosts as something that might actually be found. Or “science” shows that ponder seriously the burning question: Could aliens have built the pyramids?

      One word answer: No! Two word answer: Hell, No! (I have longer answers, but they’re generally speaking unprintable.)

      I would like to share your optimism, but… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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