Tuesday, May 20, 2008

I'm Sorry, Did You Want To Say Something?

So, I'm a voter, which should not be worth mentioning having previously discussed the fact that I'm an American, but sadly this is not the case. This used to be something that the press lamented, admonishing all of us for not going out and voicing our opinions, however ill informed those opinions may be. It would seem, however, that not only the press, but many people within the government have decided that they no longer want to hear our opinions. In short, they want to put a stop to our infernal meddling with the matters of who leads this country.

I am, of course, referring to the long running contest for the Democratic nomination for our next President. I don't associate myself with any party, but I do tend to vote Democrat. I don't always agree with a lot of their positions (both have voiced opinions supporting governmental involvement in censoring video games for example, which is a big red flag of ignorance in my book for a lot of reasons), but until we get people to actively seek out what each of these people believe in, allowing for more than two parties to realistically run for office, I can see where we will continue our binary voting system. What's more, I don't at the moment have a vested interest in which of the two gets the nomination. I think both of the candidates show a great deal of promise, and no matter which goes forward with the nomination, it will be an important historical moment for our country.

What is of key importance here is that it should be our decision. That's right, Joe six pack, you should be mad as hell right this minute. See, many people on the news and within the Democratic party itself are singing the same song: Senator Clinton needs to drop out so we can move on with this (sorry, but she and I don't know each other so I'm not going with the whole first-name thing). They say that the extended contest is hurting the Democratic chances in the Fall. They say that it's dividing Democrats and causing a split in the party that won't be easily mended. They're saying a lot of things.

What they're not saying (out loud anyway) is this: we don't want to hear from any more voters. We wanted the entire thing to be decided by Super Tuesday (February 5th this year) so we could all talk about other things like John McCain being old and being drinking buddies with George W. So if we could just decide that we're all done with this, and the rest of you remaining states can go ahead and vote (or not - whatever), that would be great.

I remember way back in December, when my home state of Michigan was being told that it would lose all of its now important delegates for moving our vote up to January 15th, there were people being interviewed in Iowa talking about how it made sense that Iowa should be the most important state to vote because they took the responsibility more seriously and did their research. It was a refreshing change of pace, because usually I have to actually meet someone to decide that they he or she is a pompous ass. They highlighted the problem though, pointing out that people expected it to be over long before any of us lesser states could put down out remote controls and PBRs long enough to voice our opinions.

So if all you nice people saying these things could just show a little patience, sit down, and shut the $%&* up, there's only a few weeks left before this is officially over. Let Senator Clinton and Senator Obama actually talk about things in public. Let every *$&%ing person who wants the opportunity go out and vote for the candidate that they believe will serve their party best. Just for fun, pretend you actually care about our opinions. Pretend you care about this country being a democracy, at least in public.

On a brighter note, I promise that this will all be so much easier when I take over as Supreme Emperor of Everything. Remember kids, monkeys for everyone!

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