They're Half The Men They Used To Be

I'm postponing my monthly review column, Over/Under, until Friday. So you'll be able to see what I think was wicked sweet and totally new (new means bad, hipsters) about August. But I've been glued to me TV set watching this Republican National Convention coverage for 3 days now and I've become almost violently sick during some parts. So I'm going to talk about the problem with the electoral process in America for this column.

Let me say right off the bat that I had an argument with my mother (one of many lately) about this whole campaign. But this argument was about the worth of the American voter and how each vote is equal. Theoretically no one can disagree with this. Everyone should have an equal say. However, in reality, there are people that are informed and intelligent and there are people who aren't. My mother didn't seem to care about this point which is indisputable. We make fun of ignorant yokels from the middle and southern states all the time. Now I'm not insinuating that the entire middle and south are stupid and ignorant or that everyone outside of those areas are brilliant people, but let's face facts people - the south and midwest have reputations of having a fair share of people south of adequately intelligent and informed.

Now my point is this: though I theoretically believe that everyone is created equal as is their vote, in reality I cannot bring myself to attest that every American makes an equally intelligent and informed decision for who they vote for.

While watching Hardball and After Hours on MSNBC tonight this fact was driven home. During the Chris Matthews show (that'd be Hardball if you weren't with me) Matthews was interviewing "Democratic" Georgia Senator Zel Miller. I put Democratic in parentheses because he is super conservative but only has a "D" next to his name because he started his political life (he claims in his early 20's or so) as a Democrat. And apparently then the party was completely different and he's disgusted at how it's changed but he wants to stay true to his roots. Now I don't know how different the Democratic party was in 1823 or whenever he was a young lad, but as usual highly conservative people like to be ridiculously stubborn so of course he'll stick by the donkey.

Now without straying too much from the point here, Matthews and Miller got into a very heated conversation where Miller complained he wasn't being allowed to answer the question because Matthews would keep talking. In actuality they were conducting the interview remotely because Miller was inside the Gaahhden and Matthews was in Herald Square. One of the questions that really ticked Zell off was when Matthews asked him why he said this in his RNC speech earlier Wednesday night: "The media doesn't defend free speech, soldiers do." Now we all know, including Matthews, that this statement is absurdly obvious and that no one would disagree with it. Well, at least informed, intelligent people. Miller got all hot and bothered and starting lashing out at Matthews taking this as a personal insult. So Miller did what any responsible United States Senator would do - he challenged Chris Matthews to a duel. Read that again - you can't make this stuff up. Now this is what live television is all about. It was absolutely hilarious. The panel on Matthews's show could be heard laughing in the background. Now all joking aside, Miller never answered the question. He simply starting yelling back complaining about Kerry's record and then calling out a TV host to meet at high noon outside the saloon.

This (avoiding reality and giving vague undisagreeable statements) seems to be a common theme with Republicans this election. It does a couple things. Firstly, it embarrasses me and other intelligent Republicans because this is the kind of crackpot we have defending our party, despite the fact he's on the left side of the political spectrum. Secondly, it shows how completely retarded the voting public can be. He represents half of Georgia in the Senate and people there respect him. Most of that state is pretty conservative so they not only see him beating the GOP's talking points into the ground which they'll ultimately believe for reasons I'll discuss later, but unintelligent Democrats will think, "Wow, a Democrat speaking for George Bush. I guess Dubya is better than I thought."

To add insult to injury, there were two segments during After Hours with Joe Scarborough and Ron Reagan where an MSNBC pollster went to Ohio with 17 "undecided" voters to watch Wednesday night's speeches. He then asked them questions on what they thought about each speech and how it impacted them and their current mindsets on how they'd vote. Now, as expected these people liked what they saw and the "bounce" that all the news analysts talk about was in full swing. The bounce is basically the amount, percentage-wise, a candidate will jump up in the polls after a convention. I vaguely remember these types of focus groups from past elections but I don't remember what I saw then.

I saw copious amounts of ignorance, stupidity, gulliblness (if that's a word), and incompetence out of most of these 17 people. All the points I made in my last column, The Idiots Are Taking Over, were made again tonight and absolutely eaten up like a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I, somehow, couldn't believe it. I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I was. These people bought into all of it. When Dick Cheney said, and I'm paraphrasing here, "the president shouldn't appease a few dissenting groups...he doesn't need a permission slip from other countries or anyone to defend America." Dude, are you serious? Firstly, those "few dissenting groups" were the biggest international protests ever. Has anyone seen System of a Down's video for "Boom!"? Have we not noticed the 50,000 or however many there are in New York City this week protesting? How many protesters were there in Boston last month? Clearly not enough to warrant news coverage. Secondly, yea I and most intelligent Americans including John Kerry do not disagree with the second half of that quote; the president does have to make difficult decisions that not everyone will be happy with if it's to defend his country. But you know what? The president does need to have the correct information and evidence to support it.

These focus people bought it all. All the vague, undisagreeable rhetoric the Republicans have been spitting for over a year but more concentratedly this week has been taken hook, line, and sinker. I'm not saying the Democrats are innocent of this but I have yet to see them do it anywhere close to as often as the GOP has done it this go-round.

So my mother believes that every person should have an equal vote. I say bullshit to that. There are too many people in this country that don't have a Goddamn clue and will eat whatever is fed to them like a bunch of lab rats. It's disgusting and I am embarrassed to share the voting booth with them. If you can't research every point of view and pull out the facts from the bullshit and form your own opinion and have an intelligent point of view then you shouldn't be allowed to vote or your vote should count for a smaller percentage of an intelligent, well-informed voters'. Of course it's nearly impossible to measure this so we'll always have this problem. It just bothers me that people will buy into words instead of reality.

If you had the chance to see Wednesday night's edition of The Daily Show on Comedy Central you saw a 5 minute package acting as a spoof trailer for Bush's campaign. It highlighted everything that's wrong with the president. He talks a good talk and if you believe it you'll tend to forget about the reality over his shoulder. It's just a sad time we live in where people will believe what they're told instead of waking up and using the outlets we have like television, internet, newspapers, etc. to seek out the truth instead of just letting a politician tell them "how it is". I urge you, don't be one of these ignorant fools; we already have enough and they're shouting "4 more years."