I Hate Politics
October 24th, 2008
Yes, I hate politics. I hate it in all forms at all levels. National level, local level, family or social politics. I hate it all. Really hate it, in the churning stomach, cringing, run away, run away now, way. I always have and expect that I always will. In my former job I had regular occasion to meet and work with many politicians at the national, state and local level. Usually just being in the same room with them made me sick. I often felt like I needed to shower after talking with them.
Now, I understand that politics is a basic part of the human condition. It’s nothing new and is probably not as bad today as it has been at many times in the past. But I still hate it. There have been some politicians who were exceptions to my general disgust with them. John Glenn stands out from the crowd. I had opportunities to interact with him one-to-one and found him to be a genuinely decent honest man. There were other exceptions, but they were few.
Only once in my life has there been a candidate for president of the US who I really wanted to win. That was John Kerry. Kerry served honorably in Vietnam and then came home to say “That is wrong!” and lead the anti-war movement that ultimately brought an end to that tragic, stupid waste of lives. Right there he had my vote. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the absurdity of the Republican attacks on Kerry’s honorable military service as he ran against a man who dodged service and couldn’t even manage to show up for his National Guard drills. I was drafted myself back in those days and served as ordered. I have respect for anyone who served and also for anyone who left the country or went to jail for refusing to serve. I don’t have much respect for those who worked the system to avoid their responsibility. Like our current president.
Those attacks on Kerry are a good example of the sort of politicking that disgusts me so much. The simple repeating of a lie deliberately, in the knowledge that if it is repeated enough it will take on the power of truth. That is wrong. That is an assault on the very foundations of a democratic society. And that is the program of the Republican party. Those Republicans who have been behind that sort of tactic would do well to remember the words of the greatest Republican president, Abe Lincoln, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people…” you know the rest.
I’ve never been a member of a political party. But as you may have guessed by now I’m supporting Barack Obama in this election. I’m not tremendously enthusiastic about Obama. I think he’ll be an ok president. I’m happy that a black will be president. That is a good thing. But I don’t really know if Obama is a politician who I would want to be in the same room with. And I’m pretty sure I’ll never really know.
But I’d support Attila the Hun if he were running against the Republican candidate in this election. I actually like and respect John McCain. At least I liked the John McCain who was there before this campaign got going. Can’t say much good about the way his campaign has been conducted. But that’s the problem I want to do something about. I want a Democrat in the White House because I don’t want any of those Republican assholes like Karl Rove who have been behind this administration’s dirty tricks and obscene distortion of the democratic process to have any access to the White House in the next administration. The only way to assure that is to put a Democrat in there. If McCain became president the same Republican henchmen who have done so much harm to our country in the past 8 years would continue to run things behind the scenes. And we just can’t afford to allow that to happen. Our democracy can not stand to have that happen.
So, there you have it. This isn’t a political blog and it won’t become one. I’ll be back to photography in the next post. Just wanted to let you know where I stand in this very important election.
Leave a Reply