Of Politics

I watched the Republican National Convention at the bar last night.

It made me think the following things:

1.

Republicans have a completely different America from the one you and I have. They live in a completely different reality. It doesn't even make sense for us to talk to each other, really, because we can't understand each other, because we're living from completely different truths.

2.

But it doesn't matter.

3.

It doesn't matter because national politics doesn't really affect things all that much. We talk about the last eight years like they've been a nightmare, but the only bad parts of it were news. The news was all bad. But news is just television.

4.

It doesn't matter who wins because all that will change is the news. To someone like me, an American like me, the thing that sucks about living in this country: We can't afford health care. We can't afford our cars. We can't find jobs that will provide these things. We don't have access to public transportation. These things suck. They suck a lot. But Obama won't make it any better. He can't, he doesn't have the money or the will or the power. But you know what else? McCain probably won't make it any worse.

5.

The only things I can think of that McCain will do to make things worse is, with his Family Values (hahahahahahahahahahahaha) VP in tow, continue the attack on reproductive rights and sexuality. That directly affects you and me and is fucked and vicious and cruel. He might also call programs that mitigate policies like these "wasteful spending" or "big government" and cut funding for them, hahahahaha.

6.

News isn't just television to people who are on the news, like the nation of Iraq. Like that kid in Afghanistan that was crying after a US airstrike killed his whole family. But you can't do anything about those things and neither can I.

7.

What about gas prices? That's not news and that sucks. I can't figure out what is causing all of it though. Rising demand from China and India combined with war and instability in oil-rich regions combined with a declining supply? I don't know. McCain might make this worse by being so fucking belligerent on the international scene.

8.

Obama In Charge might increase funding for things that you and I like and things that actually help us. But he'll only increase it a little and it won't be permanent because the other side will always come back into power and reverse everything.

9.

By the way, if you cut the military budget in half, you would still spend more money on "defense" (hahaha) than any other country in the world, and you'd still have the most powerful military in the history of the world, and you could cut taxes while investing massively in social programs and infrastructure.

10.

That will never happen.