So I voted the other day. For the first time ever, I voted before election day, sitting at my dining room table. And in honor of the occasion, I offer my rarely spoken thoughts on this election season.
First, and this is true of any election, if you have a reasonably high standard of honest and plain speaking, along with a healthy respect for the complexity of things, American elections must drive you up a wall!
I know they do me.
I received a large postcard in the mail from a candidate for the state house. It displayed a beautiful picture of majestic wind generators on a grass-covered hillside, against a blue sky. Two children were running ecstatically through the deep green grass. The headline read, "[Joe the Candidate] will bring you clean energy."
Ahem. By any reasonable standard of honesty and valuable communication, this is an utterly worthless statement.
Now multiply that by a thousand statements. A million statements. An avalanche of statements. With photo-ops to boot. Aren't we lucky to live in a democracy?
Elections are not a time for reasoned dialog. They are a time for pronouncements untethered to critical elements of the truth. The motivation for these pronouncements is utterly selfish, driven by ambition, and therefore all inconvenient complexities (otherwise known as "reality") are carefully airbrushed out of the picture.
So I voted. The man I voted for is no doubt a ninny, a doofus, and a bozo. So is the other guy. Oh well.
3 comments:
This is perhaps the succinct, accurate description of the election that I have heard to date.
And yet, I'll be voting soon as well. Good thing we're part of a different kingdom.
You can say that again, Brian. And thanks for stopping by!
yep
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