A day to think things over has left me with a weaker-than-I-had-expected stomach ache of impending doom. An email out of the blue from the Netherlands had me thinking right away about how similar the two candidates really were to begin with. Kerry had never been my first choice, and as a co-worker and I discussed yesterday over lunch, I lost sight of that for a while. When I voted on Tuesday, I was somehow thinking Kerry was going to really turn things around. Now I, (we) really regret not having voted my (our) conscience(es). Nader got way more bad press this year from democrats (that I heard) than from republicans. I was so focused on getting rid of bush that I didn’t ever really even give Nader a second glance this year. (Even though I did get pretty pissed at true majority when they sent out an email encouraging everyone NOT to vote for Nader. I just thought it was in bad taste.)
I feel like presidential campaigning has really become incredibly stupid. I don’t watch TV, and I listen to the radio (college radio) for a total of about 40 minutes a day, so I really only heard a very small sampling of political campaigning. But what I did see and hear, I feel was pointless and misleading. I feel like political campaigning has been reduced to a level more befitting some kind of high school popularity contest. I guess that’s why we’re left with the world’s most high profile frat boy as a president. (link via Nate, if you don’t want to bother downloading it, it’s a video of GWB flicking off the camera and calling it his “one finger victory salute”.)
There is no doubt in my mind that Bush and his administration have lied repeatedly about everything and anything. It’s that conviction more than anything else that has me wondering why we haven’t already impeached the bastard. I mean, Clinton was on trial for lying about something only tangentially related to his office. Of course Chaney is no better, so we’d have to get rid of them both to suit my tastes.
My initial gut reaction was that this needs to happen, (link via Jason, although I have since received it from a few sources) but when I read this live journal post last night I was reminded to look at the big picture again. Yes, things may be rough for a while, but realistically, it could probably be a lot worse.
I was talking to someone from Costa Rica recently — she was saying that in her country and, in fact, all over the world except for here, they know that politicians are corrupt. But here, for whatever naive reasons, we believe ours are upright and potential saviors. It speaks volumes about the collective stupidity here. I agree—Kerry wasn’t my first choice. But with my ‘family’ at stake, I just couldn’t see my way clear to support that egomaniac Nader. He’s got a couple of screws loose if you ask me. But you didn’t. So I’ll shush.
That’s the thing… I didn’t even read about his politics this year. I was completely and totally sold by the “anybody but bush” campaign. What I was basically saying was not that I would have voted for Nader, but that I should never have let myself stop looking for the best candidate. We should all vote our conscience, every time. None of this worrying about whether our third party votes are going to help some other candidate. Next time I’m going to vote for who I want to win, not who I think has the best shot at winning.