mercurious

Decision 2008 Convention Chatterbox

The party conventions have magnetized the polarities of choice for our next president. Indeed, historic moments on both sides of the aisle.

“Identity politics” aside, instead, let’s just stick to the real issues. Presidential Election 2008 will come down to this decision for the American people, in three talking points:

Talking Points

If you:

1. don’t mind oil, no matter the price¹
2. don’t mind the government legislating reproductive rights in the bedroom and religion in the classroom²
3. don’t mind trickle-down economics³

…then you should support McCain/Palin.

If you:

1. want to start getting off oil, no matter the price⁴
2. don’t want the government legislating any reproductive rights or injecting religion in science classes and libraries⁵
3. reject trickle-down economics⁶

…then you should support Obama/Biden.

Divide and Conquer

They’ve gone ahead and done it, in act of bleak desperation, and made the election about 3 stupid things
(oil/abortion/the-economy-stupid).

The selection of Gov. Palin as Vice President without a truly acceptable vetting process is a blatant act of sexist pandering by McCain and reflects his poor judgment, especially considering there are so many other qualified and tested party rank-and-file women to select from (Sec. Rice, Sen. Snowe, Gov. Whitman). If you have to be sexist and choose a woman, for tactical purposes only, at least be smart about it. Atrocious!

It’s an evil-genius move, that smells like Karl Rove took a dump all over it. Play the VP choice like a talent-pageant.

“America’s Next Vice President: So You Think You Can Run The Free World!” – Tonight on FOX

The American thirst for playing out the pretty girl story on TV is unquenchable. It’s a contagious addiction to “narrative” rather than any real substance. This reality-show amusement reflects our fractured sense of true reality in a national quest for impossible authenticities. The guilty pleasure of liking and disliking people for superficial reasons bleeds into the real voting process. In dystopian horror, our democracy seems to be punishing qualified candidates for being too elite through accusations of elites of the highest order. This tactic envelopes discourse into pure us vs. them categories where the mutual contempt between intellectual haves and have-nots collide. Is this an Idiocracy in the making? Why wouldn’t we want a deeply intelligent individual in the land’s highest office. The most elite candidate, please. The Founding Fathers were the most “cosmopolitan” men of their day. If it wasn’t for them, we’d have the monarchy that the GOP is intent on coronating.

A Czechoslovakia Problem

I’ve seen the propaganda reels of McCain’s senile gaffes and it ain’t pretty, even when you discount it all “being taken out of context.” He’s just not sharp these days. I want a sharp commander-in-chief.⁷

And then there’s the most spine-chilling propaganda reel about McCain that you will ever see, with the guy from Book TV, the last place you’d expect to find a kind of whistleblower…

“There’s gonna be other wars. I’m sorry to tell you. There’s gonna be other wars.”

Footnotes

1. McCain/Palin and GOP machine is all about more drilling, denying inconvenient truths, and stalling to be conservative. [↩]
2. McCain or Palin would likely appoint anti-abortion and possibly pro-creationist justices to the Supreme Court during their term(s). Palin gutted funding in a surplus state for Teen mom support services. [↩]
3. You’ll see no relief to the middle class, no penalties for big business to foot the bills of the nation’s financial crisis, and social security will be gutted and privatized. [↩]
4. Obama will dedicate towards truly solving the problem of oil. [↩]
5. Obama or Biden would never appoint an anti-abortion justice to the Supreme Court. Palin tried to have books banned in the library. [↩]
6. The middle-class would likely see some economic relief, the greed and corruption of unfettered big business would likely be assessed, and social security would be preserved and nurtured. [↩]
7. Especially one who has traveled the world. Palin’s travel history is atrocious. Executives need international travel experience. It’s a basic qualification. [↩]