Category — This Political Mess

So, I understand now how voting really works in this country, not that I was so completely oblivious to the ways of it before. Recently, though, I experienced a moment of absolute clarity brought on by these here primary elections.

You see, I know this family in Tennessee. The family Momma is one of those people who is a special kind of concerned about what people think of her. When she went to vote in the Tennessee primary (which is proof of just how involved this political season has become, because these are definitely not the type of people to be involved this early in the election process), she was asked whether she needed a Democratic or Republican ballot. She asked for a Democratic ballot, and was so embarrassed, because “everyone around me was a Republican.”

Oh, the agony of making a decision that goes against the group!

I went and did my early-voting today, and was given a glimpse into the Republican playbook. I’ve often wondered how the Republicans have managed to steal two elections in a row. After all, we live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, we should have access to the greatest technology available, and yet in the past two elections, dead people have managed to vote and exit polls have been drastically misleading. How?

Well, this helps.

When we went to vote today, we took photo IDs to prove who we were, and, since our IDs have incorrect addresses, we took utility bills to prove that we live here. For naught. Apparently, you don’t show your photo ID in Ohio when voting. In fact, it’s against the law for them to ask for it. You just fill out a little form, hand it over, they check to see if you are registered, and you vote. No proof whatsoever that you are you. So, they can ask for ID if you want a beer, but not if you want to help pick the resident?

And here’s some more inside knowledge. On one side, there was a woman who provided the poll workers with the last four digits of a social security number that didn’t match what was in the system. They let her vote anyway, and told her they would change the social on their end. On the other side, there was a woman who wasn’t registered at all. They let her vote as well and told her that they would have to verify her information before the vote would be counted.

I’m sorry… What?

Obama is closing in on Hillary everywhere. Without policy. Without plans. After his one-person-removed association with a hate-filled human being like Louis Farrakhan is (finally) brought to real attention. After he proves, in the last debate, that he is trying to be everything to everyone. After he admits that he didn’t have time to do any work with his sub-committee, because he was too busy trying to become president. Now, the right thing to do in this case might have been to give up the chairperson position to someone who has time to actually do the work. Of course, that would also be giving up his claim to foreign policy experience, which he clearly doesn’t have.

You know, people can say all they want about Hillary and how being first lady doesn’t qualify her to be president (I’ve seen that very sexist and misleading comment on several message boards), but she still has more experience than Obama.

And I am going to talk about this every day until the convention. I’m going to support Hillary. I’m going to ask that she not concede this race, no matter what is said, because she is the stronger candidate, she is the better choice, and I don’t want the media and the rich, guilty white people to decide who my president is going to be. If you need to clear your conscience, go confess or something.

And Obama is finally getting hit with some tough questions, some people in the media have actually realized there are some things that he is hiding. Nice fucking timing. A little fucking late.

And just when he thought he was safe…

Apparently, those people who are supposed to be real news people didn’t care for being mocked on Saturday Night Live, because they suddenly decided to brandish some big guns when it came to facing Obama. The skits on Saturday Night Live this past weekend poking fun at the debates and obsessive Obama-love were amusing, but the underlying themes really aren’t that funny. Has there been a double-standard regarding what questions have been asked of the Democratic candidates? Yes, absolutely. Is it a little late to turn things around and show some level of fairness? Well, it’s definitely getting there.

The problem with the media’s lack of scrutiny when it comes to Obama isn’t just that they are virtually choosing the Democratic nominee for the public. It’s that they have provided Obama with a free ride to the nomination. The questions are there to be asked, but nobody’s asking them. So, Obama might skate into the general election, and then what? I’ll tell you what. The Republicans ask all the questions that the media has been too afraid to, and all of those hidden truths come pouring out.

But tonight in the debate, they actually managed to ask a few.

Better late than never?

They just better hope it isn’t too late.

So, tonight is the live debate between Hillary and Obama in Texas. The question is, will they be able to retain the civil tone of their last debate now that they have been throwing stones? It seems unlikely that Obama is going to decare, yet again, that he and Hillary will remain friends when this is all over. And I’d say that Democratic dream ticket is looking more like a nightmare.

Man, politics in this country are ugly as hell. I’ll be tuning in, not for the hope of a fight, honestly, but to see if the people asking the questions will be willing to ask any tough questions of either candidate. If they do, I doubt they will ask Obama what his wife meant by her comment about never being proud of America in her adult life until now, or if he thinks it’s okay to borrow rhetoric when rhetoric is all he has.

I guess we’ll have to see if they’ll ask anything different, because I’ll tell you, all of these debates, and there are still an awful lot of unanswered questions.

FYI, I’m not terribly proud of the attempts by Hillary to derail his campaign either though.