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Well, by popular demand I return. Not much has happened in the month since I've returned, but this stupid crock-o-crap presidential race (already?) is getting pretty heated. I try to ignore it, but it's hard. I have some thoughts, so I'll jump right in. Someone who reads this blog invited me in good faith to join a Facebook group called "keep Hilary out" or something to that effect. Now, be it known that I consider the desire to keep Hilary Roddam Clinton out of the White House a noble sentiment. However, I'm getting so freaking sick and tired of this horse crap I hear on the radio echoing that desire and taking it to the extreme. Sean Hannity (aka Sean Vannity and Pawn Hannity) has this little thing he says several times throughout his radio show about keeping Hilary out, "that's all we ask". Therefore, vote Ghouliani (not even gonna try to spell it right).
I remember when I was at T.A.C. both witnessing and participating in some pretty heated discussions about why I or Ken (the old man on campus while I was there?) HAD A DUTY to vote Bush in the election, to keep Kerry out. What is wrong with this picture? Everything we do in elections is now geared toward preventing worst-case scenarios, rather than focusing on achieving the best possible good. Have we all bought into this propoganda from the political machine to "make your vote count!!!"? I was told that to vote for a 100% pro-life guy (well, Bush is mostly pro-life....) who we all know has no chance is to waste my vote and add to the probability that Kerry will get in.
You know what, the machine doesn't want my vote. My duty is not to "make my vote count", as I see it. Aren't we supposed to be the light of the world as Catholics? How can we effect positive change if we're just satisfied with keeping greater evil out from occuring? What if the Church took that approach in mission work? Well, let's let these savages keep head-hunting as long as we can keep them from robbing. Or let's not weed out petafile priests, let's just keep them from murdering their victims, too. Huh? Those are both ridiculous things to say, because they're real life problems! People need to stop treating politics like it's a game! There's this bizarre disconnect when it comes to politics, wherein people's actions can be so contradictory to their beliefs.
And it's idiots like Sean Hannity (the self-proclaimed "great American" and pro-life-in-some-situations Catholic) who want me to disconnect myself in this way. Schizophrenia is in my family, but I'm not ready to have it voluntarily. I won't stop the shop-lifter as long as I'm pretty sure he's not gonna kill anyone. And the most frustrating and insidious thing about all this is that the people who promote this crap won't admit it. I'm not allowed to call it a "lesser of two evils" vote. They find ways to justify it. Well, so-and-so's pretty pro-life. The Catechism doesn't say he has to be 100%. Please. I'll bet 95% of T.A.C. voted for Bush in '04 and my good friend who especially tried to convince me to assured me that he'd do a better job his next time around. He'll be free to be more vehemntly pro-life, blah blah blah. Right, that's exactly what I'm seeing. And I'm sure Ghouliani will be the same.
Well, go vote for whoever the hey you want to. But I'll bet if you were honest you'd never have made Bush your first choice, all else being equal. I'm not going to change your minds. People feel more strongly about politics than I do. I'm pretty apathetic because I despise the system that makes some of my peers think I'm doing wrong to not vote for a guy like Bush. And I'm not mentioning any names, in fact the two people who read this blog have never voiced their political convictions in any detail to me, so don't think I'm berating you. I'm just annoyed. Peace and love to all and I hope you both have Veteran's day off from whatever work you do. Oh, wait, EH doesn't get time off. Pthpthpthpthp!!!!:-P
posted by SkyPilot @ 10:09 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
I join you in your political apathy, and your sentiments about the lesser of two evils. I think I voted for Buchanan, but I can't remember. If I did, that makes me guilty of My-Vote-Not-Counting. My conscience is not bothered. I follow the news with alternating disgust and amusement, I listen half-heartedly to what Boyer has to say about the characters of the various candidates for 08. I'm sure whoever is pro-life or whatever will not have a chance and thus My Vote Will Not Count - again.
To change the subject, I think America is headed for recession. Our economy is looking over a cliff. I cannot base this opinion on much other than a weak dollar, a crashed mortgage market, and disappearing oil. And Boyer disagrees with me. What do you think?
Well, Vince, I'm not really sure what to say. I've been politically confused for quite some time now. Everyone in my family, both distant and immediate relations, were staunch democrats. The immediate relations got real some time ago and realized that the democratic party, as they thought of it, didn't exist anymore. My family, still being too old-school democratic, never liked Bush overmuch. Coming to my own conclusions, I noted that the first principle of Natural Law is twofold, and it states that we must do good AND avoid evil. The way I saw it, since my vote wasn't gonna lead to the election of someone decent (meaning it would not be able to effectually do a GOOD), I should adopt the only other path which seemed to uphold the dictates of natural law: viz., avoid evil by voting for the guy with the best chance who wasn't a freakish murderer. *shrug* It may be a cheap way out, but so is this American form of democracy - lesser things are part of this world, after all.
As for the Hilary thing . . . well, the whole situation scares me a lot more than the last election. You've got evil mudering feminazi Democrat or evil murdering sniveling Republican, and I don't like Republicans anyway - the only reason I allied myself to them was because they weren't murderers. Therefore, it's all a non-issue to me. Neither of them could ever get my vote.
Looking at the less popular people, I myself like the approach taken by Fred Thompson, and he's not a murderer, so for now that's who I'm looking at more seriously. *shrug*
I've heard the "America is headed for recession" prediction quite a few times, actually. Maybe? I dunno. Hasn't happened yet. I prefer to make predictions after the fact. :)
Oh, it's gonna happen. Trust me.
actually, Hillary has been doing a fair amount of sniveling herself recently....
I'm artificially inflating the comment count on this blog.
this is kinda fun.
Hui!
(or to quote a dear Section-4 mate, MS, "Whee!")
vince is like, holy crap, people are commenting on my blog!
BUT HE'S WRONG.
IT TAKES ONLY ONE
TO RULE AN EMPIRE
(okay, two in this case)
Oh, Vince, and when you said EH, who were you referring to?
-confused-
OH, excuses. Brotha tellen me 'bout your new computer. Machine like 'dat, dude, should hann'le yo bloggin' needs with NO trouble, no trouble.
These new plug an play devices..alse yo gotta do is siddoun' an WRITE! So less get in there, brotha, get them shiny noo key'se aTAPPIN!
Thanks for the love, folks. Emily, I guess I forgot that you had a name change recently. Congrats on that if I haven't already said so. Thanks for being a hole, Evan, and making me think people cared about my blog. I feel so sad. Maybe I'll post tomorrow.
:) I thought you might be referring to me, Vince. If it make things any better, although I have become accustomed to giving my new full name, I still very frequently mess up the recognition/signing of my initials thing.
There was one major reason I wasn't sure whether you were referring to me or not, though, since I do TOO get days off. They're just a bit more random than most peoples' . . . saaaay, I get major holy days off instead of columbus day or presidents' day. Well, excepting today, because finals are coming, and the students need the library.
*sigh*
I have Monday off instead, though. That's not so bad.
Oh well.
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