Thoughts on the first Tuesday in November

I know the blogosphere breathlessly awaits the endorsement of Eat Your Vegetables, so here it is. But first:

I won't be voting tomorrow. Truth be told, I think Democracy is overrated. Why? Because it leads to elections. Oh, to be sure, democracy is the least dangerous thing out there but it has its weaknesses. A propensity toward deficit spending is a trait fairly unique to democracies, for example. Think about that on Tuesday as your voting for a guy guaranteed to be out of a job in 8 years.

I should say I grew up in a strict Libertarian household and two things have remained ingrained: free markets are what it is all about and I've never been a partisan. In consideration of the economy the government is merely another agent trying to carve out for itself what it can from the collective production, just like the New York Knicks, Outback Steakhouse, General Dynamics and you and me and everyone when we know. It needn't be worshipped or feared. We should let the government do what it needs to do and get on with our lives, much as we do with the New York Knicks or Outback Steakhouse. The way to keep it manageable is to keep it minimal.

But this embarrassing partisan silliness we get barraged with every 4 years--this is the drawback of our form of government! Our national 'debate' gets hijacked by two extraordinarily wealthy corporations (Democrats, Republicans) who have colluded together to maximize duopolistic control of the processes of government. They overwhelm the collective consciousness with slickly packaged empty rhetoric larded with logical fallacies and call them 'issues'. Then they break us off into rigidly divided ethnic and cultural sub-groups and tell us how to vote. Frankly, I think it all sorta sucks.

Both of the parties are fundamentally flawed: the Republicans want unlimited economic growth but they don't want anything to ever change; the Democrats want unlimited personal expression but somehow they don't see that as a function of living in a thriving economy. Republicans think money just gets made and we gradually buy more expensive brands until we die. Money gets made because people are doing new things, they want new products, new experiences, they want improvement and progress. Money don't get made where things don't change! Democrats see the economy has something invented by and presided over by the government and that merely sitting in the seats will give you the power to spend on all the shit society 'needs'. But that just isn't how it works! The government prints the money but they don't create the value for the money, do you see? We do that! It is our products and services that are building the economy, not government fiat. When the government takes our money, it burns most of it in overhead--just like any other business or entity that exists in the physical world. The difference is the government doesn't go out of business so it has no incentive to ever do anything the right way. So Democrats enact policies that purport to help people but actually just raise prices. They love sticking it to the rich so much that they never notice the poor are paying more too.

So the system is creaky, the parties piss me off and in the end, I don't like either of these guys. I wasn't enthralled by either of them at first: McCain's too old, Obama's too young. But I didn't dislike either of them too strongly either. They both seem fine to me, this wasn't one of the more agonizing elections of my lifetime, I don't fear for the Republic whoever wins. But I will say as the campaign wore on, I liked McCain less. He strikes me not as a liar but as a man that'll ride what advantage is tossed to him. He'll say what he needs to say to be elected--not to the people, but to the hand-greasers behind the scenes. I don’t distrust McCain, I just don't like him that much. I don't think I like Obama any more than I did when I first saw him but he hasn't really had to do much this year. His fight with Hillary was faux, man, he had her whooped early. And McCain, too, was beaten soundly during the debate season, so Obama had little to do but hone his speech-making.

Obama is a smart guy, sure, I can dig that. But I had plenty of professors I wouldn't vote for, plenty of people I respected that wouldn't necessarily have made wise decision makers or been as cool in real life as they look when well-prepared. Smart people don't always make the best leaders. That's not an indictment of Obama, just of the notion that his smartness makes him worthy. I don't suppose it does, this country has had plenty of jackass idiot leaders. He's a fine public speaker and I can appreciate that. To be composed on stage requires composing back stage and he is a fine writer, his imagery and narrative style are perfectly pitched and he reads his audiences well. My one piddling complaint: when he's trying to ride the applause and talk through it, he has a tendency to get just a bit too close to the mic and the sound gets distorted. This leads to a melancholy realization though: I suspect that as Prez, he won't be making those soul-stirring speeches quite as often or effectively. That style is fine for abstractions like 'change' but not so good for dancing through the tough press conferences--or do you suppose no one will die in hurricanes any more with Prez Obama around to protect us? He's notoriously unpopular with his own press crew, his toughest opponent will be the media once he's in office. His race will neither save him or hurt him. It'll be the grandest non-issue in our nation's history.

So who would I vote for if I voted? I guess I'd vote for Obama. McCain just doesn't have anything to offer at this point. My thinking for most of the summer was that McCain would win and Obama would come back at defeat in 2012. If Obama truly is a 'change' than he'd still be a change in 4 years. I think I favored giving him some more seasoning before sending him to the White House. But 4 more years in the Senate would probably doom him politically: look what's it done to Joe Biden--far more qualified than any of these people and they've got him hidden away lest he embarrass himself! And what's 'seasoning'? McCain has been seasoning away all these years and look where its gotten him: a ride on the Bob Dole Express!

It’s a new era. For all the 'change' we've been promised I've got a feeling its gonna be a lot of the same. And right wing radio is gonna be louder than ever, you know? Is that a good thing?