On the cusp of my 30th birthday, things are looking awfully bleak. On a personal level, life is a-ok. I just had a champagne-fueled birthday party, where I may or may not have engaged in a lurid display of my finer dance moves, and I'm about to head out on a European adventure like the yuppie I am. I have a sweet Hobbit house and am hemorrhaging friends and loved ones. I'm pretty much the Scrooge McDuck of joy right about now, diving in my giant pit of luck and imported chocolate.
The bleakness, my friends, is not personal, but is affecting me personally, as I'm wont to internalize such things. The election, the economy, the war--it seems to have whipped up a shitstorm of anxiety among my peers. I don't think it was a coincidence that my party made haste of no less than ten bottles of bubbly alone, in a Gatsby-esque attempt to drown whatever discontent is gnawing at our temples, etching permanent worry lines into our faces.
With how bad things have gotten over the last, gee, eight years, we of the liberal salon set were smugly sipping our over-priced macchiatos and gleefully planning our victory outfits for inauguration day. Now that She-Ra, Princess of Hicksville has entered the arena, we're running scared. I can only speak for myself, but it isn't even the prospect of a McCain/Dumbshit with a vagina presidency that sends me into a crying jag. It's the idea that the American public, having lived through the Bush years, would blithely turn around and vote in another pair of bass-akwards, cronyish, fear-mongering, racist leaders. It's the idea that my fellow countrymen would invite more of the same against their own self interests? And for what? To keep gays from getting married? To keep 16-year olds from getting abortions? To keep their taxes down? Or to simply keep a half-black man out of the white house?
If fear and ignorance end up winning out over rationality and progress yet again, I don't know that I can continue living in this country.
3 comments:
Princess of Hicksville....I find this post reeking with truth, humor, and dismay. Sadly, I come from a place where McCain/old white dude with vagina are popular and I STILL don't have an answer for you. I was thinking about this yesterday in the car - it's like they all have battered wives syndrome. They just keep getting punched in the face all the while screaming, "but America loves me!"
I wouldn't panic just yet. The Palin pick was an overreach on McCain's part. He's trying to reach the rabid fundies with her rabid fundie-ness, and at the same time, trying to reach those pesky swing voters with her fake folksy Mr. Smith-Goes-to-Washington-ness.
She'll probably bring him some of the fundies (not all, though - they still hate McCain), but the press, in a weird turn of events, isn't letting McCain and Palin get away with their truthiness on her maverickiness. I don't think the swing voters will buy her bullshit for long.
But then again, I have been known to be wrong from time to time.
Anyway, in the meantime, take heart in the fact that McCain is second on the ticket and is relying on Palin to keep people talking about his campaign. That's like a football team relying on their punter to win a game.
And you shouldn't leave the country! Come live in the woods with me and evilcat. We can raise chickens and sheeps and whistle past the Apocalypse!
I have a feeling, that no matter who wins this election, it won't matter much.
Because things are going to get very shitty, very quickly, either way. SO sure, it'd suck if McCain won, especially if people believe the lies they're spinning about Palin and, um that she's 'hot' so people are voting for her.
On one hand, that sums up our nation, so we deserve it, kinda. We're a bunch of ignorant, shallow fucks.
On the other hand, let's say the Dems reclaim the white house. We're still going to reach an economic crisis of epic proportions. And sure, we don't know how bad that'll be. We go under, the world potentially goes under, so I'm sure some countries will want to help 'save us'. But they can't save us completely. So it'll be bad, bad bad. For a long, long time. The Dems don't have a better answer for that than the GOP.
So, basically, what I'm telling you is take heart in this election; because it's not the worst thing on our horizon.
And, I was talking with my parents last night about the economic melt down. They said you could come stay in the motorhome or our fifth wheel trailer. Just bring some benedryl.
You may have to learn how to kill a chicken. :)
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