April 17, 2008

Silence is golden

I'm sure many of you have been wondering why I haven't had anything to say about all of the recent electoral controversies of the last two months. Nothing on Rev. Wright, or Bosnian snipers, or phone calls at 3 in the morning, or bitterness in small town Pennsylvania, or the Weathermen, or flag lapel pins, or bowling, or whiskey shots, or even the debate last night on ABC.

And, yes, I do spend a fair amount of time following these stories, and I have pretty strong opinions. So strong, sometimes, that it literally drives up my blood pressure and makes my hands tremble in fury.

Which doesn't feel good.

So I don't say anything.

Because these things are distractions.

As my roommate likes to say, "they keep us all REAL busy, don't they?"

So, I've chosen to contribute as little as possible to the cacaphony, because, at the end of the day, the choice is really very simple:

If you like the direction the country is going in right now, internationally and economically, vote for John McCain.

If you don't like the direction the country is going in, but feel that the partisan divide in the country is just insurmountable, so that the best we can hope to do is cobble together the slimmest majority necessary to win and then, with no mandate, make whatever changes are available to that 50.01% of us, vote for Hilary Clinton.

If you don't like the direction the country is going in, and that the problems are so big that the incrementalism available to those slim majorities won't be enough to cut it, and are ready to at least try to bridge the partisan divide to build a real majority so that the entire country can be galvanized actually make some significant changes, vote for Barack Obama.

If you don't think voting for either of these three will effect your life in anyway, write in a 3rd party candidate who you think could, if given a chance, and vote for him.
if you don't think voting AT ALL can change the direction of the country, stay at home, roll up your sleeves, and get to work making your own contribution to making things better.

It's that simple.

Ask yourself what you believe, and then act accordingly.

But don't let them waste your time with this crap.

I know it's hard. Because the crap is madly entertaining.

But it's still crap.