As my friends know, I've recently been all fired up about this Sarah Palin person, and I send them every gossip and gaffe that reinforces my frustration. I'm just flummoxed that someone like her is on the ticket, and that people are able to rationalize her experience as presidential. Clearly, I'm easily wound up by all these stories, videos, and op-eds. Essentially, I'm responding to everyone else's frustration. I would like to reframe this post from yesterday in a way that is more psychologically accurate. Who the hell was I talking to when I wrote it? Honestly, I was talking to myself. I think most of you already knew this, but I didn't.
I don't really care who you vote for in November, but I do care why you vote in November: vote because you know, not because you heard something on television or your favorite partisan radio station oryour there was this great mashup on Digg the other day.
Instead, find out the candidates' positions and figure out what the they really stand for. Look at their voting records, their service, and who they'll put in their cabinet. Don't trust the words "maverick" or "change". Do not believe what they tell you in their speeches or debates. These are necessarily oversimplifications of complex positions. That applies to all sides. Palin's drastic oversimplification of her relationship to the "Bridge to No Where" is just one example indicating the problem across the political spectrum. Obama's got his own problems.
Read. Read other things. Read the other side.
And for goodness sake, November Greg, don't vote based on the single issue that gets you fired up, whether that issue is Palin, tax cuts, the war in Iraq, or whatever. If you're fired up by something *they* tell you to be upset about, then they're just pushing you around. Think bigger. Be upset because they use emotional appeals (like 9-11) to distract you from the big issues; be upset because they don't clarify themselves or speak about the details of their policies; be upset because they use snide and effective but off topic ad hominem attacks rather than engage serious policy criticisms; be upset that they're campaigns are funded by lobbyists; be upset that Fox News leans right and MSNBC leans left; be upset that the two major candidates positions are nearly identical and you do not have a real choice. Think bigger.
off to,
September Greg
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