(no subject)

[cleolinda]

After I made my enraged "Screw the VP debates, I know who I'm voting for!" proclamation, which was flippant at best, someone asked me--anonymously, curiously enough--who I'd chosen. I think Invincible Girl explains it better than I can. And that's why I didn't care about the debates--because I'm basing my vote on four years of actions--actions that terrify me--and not hot air batted back and forth by two people, both of whom are probably bullshitting like it's going out of style, and one of whom will be elected and may or may not remember a damn thing he said once the count is final.

And like Invincible Girl, I feel a cold, nauseous political fatigue, partly because I live in Alabama (just as she lives in Texas), and I know that my vote isn't going to count for much, thanks to the electoral college. But I've got to put it in just in case. The last election was the first I could vote in, because I turned 18 two months too late to vote four years before, and it nearly broke my heart. And that was before we even knew how bad it was going to get. I'm not sure I can bear it this time.

And the really sad thing is? I don't care what people say--by voting for Kerry, I will be voting for a conservative on election day. And that's one of the saddest things about this election--of the only two candidates with a ghost of a chance of actually getting elected, one of them is conservative, and the other one is... even more conservative.

Also, the other one looks like a monkey.

Comments

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

Meh, the taller guy always wins, anyhow.

[modpixie.livejournal.com]

wait, but isn't gore like six feet tall? and shrubya is, like, hobbit-sized...

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

God, thank you, both you and I-girl. That's exactly what I've been trying to say, but I've been so burnt out from the last few politic-filled weeks to be able to compose it so saliently.

Here's hoping Milton's as cooperative....

[duncanatrix.livejournal.com]

If you haven't seen this...http://atomfilms.shockwave.com/af/content/this_land_af

[jettcat.livejournal.com]

"Also, the other one looks like a monkey"

I keep waiting for him to fling poo

(now with linkage!)

[shoukinkasegi.livejournal.com]

[starr234.livejournal.com]

Correction--the other one looks like a cross between a monkey and a toddler. A toddler monkey, if you will.

I turned 18 about 4 days before the last election. I was so excited about being involved in our glorious political system (shutup, I was young and idealistic) and didn't even mind that I lived in Texas and my vote wouldn't count for anything. I stayed up late that night waiting for the results to come in from Florida. At 3 AM, I gave up, figuring we'd have a president when I woke up. No luck. I figured we'd at least have a president by lunch time. Needless to say, that whole fiasco broke my spirit pretty quickly.

That's why I'm subscribing to this amazing icon's theory.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Heh. I think my favorite was a similar icon I saw, only sub in "Cthulhu" for "Palpatine."

[notyetxbroken.livejournal.com]

in anthropology last spring, my teacher had a powerpoint detailing theories of evolution and how humans derived from apes. on the front page, she had a lovely picture college of dubya and a monkey. dubya and a monkey. it was hilarious, because, well... he does.

[ambshe.livejournal.com]

oOoh. Ooo. AH! AH! (http://www.fm99.com/EventImages/bush-face.jpg)

[tania.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you for that link. I've posted it in my LJ. There are a few people on my friends list who should really read it...

And that's one of the saddest things about this election--of the only two candidates with a ghost of a chance of actually getting elected, one of them is conservative, and the other one is... even more conservative.

Sadly, the same thing is happening on a smaller scale in Australia. Our 'left wing' party.... isn't. Not anymore. I'm voting for them anyway come Saturday (which is when our far less trumpeted Federal Election is), but I don't hold out a great deal of hope either. The problem is that they're not left-wing enought for the left-wingers, but they'll never be able to appeal to the right-wingers as much as the other party. In trying to appeal to everyone, they've lost us all.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

At least we can still give our first preferences to whichever minority party we prefer, without wasting the vote...

[vladimirsever.livejournal.com]

Am only little and would like your random wars to be over with before I grow up so I'd have a future to look up to.

*cuddle*

[la-sonnambula.livejournal.com]

Aww. Won't someone think of the children?!

[wock.livejournal.com]

Kerry's not a conservative. He's not anything, really. He's completely free of ideology. I mean, what does he stand for?

Be forewarned: Not being Bush may not mean he's more desirable ;-)

I remember a great motto from many years ago:

"Why vote for the *lesser* of two evils? Cthulu in '72!"

[meredith-mae.livejournal.com]

Well, Kerry is more liberal than Bush, but I sometimes think Hitler was more liberal than Bush. Still, he's not liberal enough for me. I usually prefer to vote Green, but I'm voting for Kerry because I just hate the monkey-man that much. Plus, I agree with Kerry on at least some things.

Rock on Cleo! I wondered what you thought about the election. 2000 was my first time too, but I actually was 18 then. You're a smart cookie, I shouldn't have worried. ;-)

[pride4u2.livejournal.com]

My friend calls Bush "Nerd Boy" I call him "Power Hungry Trigger Happy Monkey Bastard." Just got back from seeing Fahrenheit 9/11...not sure how I'll sleep tonight. *sigh*

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

[texansasha.livejournal.com]

I'm with you!

He DOES look like a monkey! :)

I live in Texas as well, and I know my vote wont count for much, but I'm voting for who I want.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

I live in Texas (well, Austin) and last week I saw a sign in front of a carwash that said "REGISTER TO VOTE-FOR KERRY!". Made me a little happy.

[kookaburra1701.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I'm just getting tired of people telling me that because I'm voting for Badnarik, I'm going to make their candidate lose, or I'm "wasting" my vote. No, I'm sorry, wasting my vote would be voting for someone whom I DON'T support. *sigh*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hey, the only way to waste your vote is to not use it at all.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

I feel a cold, nauseous political fatigue, partly because I live in Alabama (just as she lives in Texas), and I know that my vote isn't going to count for much, thanks to the electoral college.

At least you'll make it to the voting booth and the ballot come November. *shakes her fist in the general direction of the INS*

[foresthouse.livejournal.com]

Monkeys! Have you seen www.bushorchimp.com?

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Good bipartisan fun at slapthecandidate.com (http://www.slapthecandidate.com/).

[malsperanza.livejournal.com]

Go you. I've voted for a presidential candidate exactly once in my life: for McGovern in 1972. Every other time, I've voted against Someone Worse. I can't fathom why folks think that's a tragedy or a travesty or something. It's called living in the real world, and it works pretty well.

You bet your vote counts. The GOP mustn't think any state is a lock for them, or that their policies are populist.

As for Kerry's conservatism: yes, he's roughly what would have been called a Rockefeller Republican back in the day. But he also founded both Vietnam Veterans of America and Vietnam Veterans Against the War--one of the bravest and most emotionally difficult and honorable things I can imagine any war veteran doing. Brave to the point of radicalism. And desperately needed, not only as a moral voice to bring that vile and hellish war to an end, but also because Vietnam veterans had been abandoned by their own nation and were being horribly abused and mistreated, both personally and politically.

This country owes Kerry an immense debt of honor for that. When Republicans tried to smear his war record, they sold their own honor cheap.

As president he'll be cautiously centrist (which today means fairly conservative) and perhaps frustratingly pragmatic (which means he may play footsie with oil interests and polluters and dubious governments and other Powers of Darkness). And depending on what happens in the Senate and Congress, he may not have the option to return to the more liberal principles of his youth.

But he is an honest steward. He will not sell us up the river to please his buddies; he will not stain our name or shame us in the eyes of the world; he will not rule through fear and false information; he will not steal our civil liberties under cover of night.

These are not bad things to vote for, when all's said and done, eh?

Sorry to spam your LJ.

[fizzwick.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I could agree with you more. When your vote is more against someone else than for the guy you give it to, it makes a sad statement about politics today.

[(Anonymous)]

speaking of monkeys:

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/uc/20041007/sft041007.gif

[robinskij.livejournal.com]

I can't even put into words how much I despise Bush. Not just because he's a shallow, overpriveledged, smugly illiterate cheerleading daddy's boy who is proud that he doesn't read the newspapers and who has run every venture that daddy handed him on a silver platter straight into the ground, all while doing it with that HORRIBLE stupid chimpy smirk on his face that makes me want to punch him right in his squinty little eye.

No, I hate him because he is needlessly sending brave American soldiers to their death for a stupid war, because he lied about it before he did it and he's lying about it now, because he petulantly insists that not giving tax cuts to EVERYONE including and especially millionaires is just not FAIR ~ in fact give them most of it cause after all, they are the ones having to pay the most (sob) poor abused souls. In the meanwhile kids are losing free lunch, the only meal some of them ever get, and seniors skip their Alpo to pay for medicine, or skip the medicine to buy their Alpo. And he's either too fricking DUMB to see it or too damn hollow to care. What a cravenly coward.

However he looks like a boy scout next to Darth Cheney. No wonder he said, on the debate, that he has no aspiration to be president. Hell, he's already running the country right now, who needs to run? That even, calm delivery of his ~ he is the coolest most convincing liar on the planet ~ sounds exactly like the way a serial killer would talk to you right before he explains how he is going to make Osso Buco out of your left thigh.

I liked Kucinich myself, but I'll gladly take Kerry. Of course trying to fix this fucking deficit that would have horrified any REAL republicans and getting us out of this fucking quagmire in Iraq is more than any one man can do. But bad as it is, 4 more years of the Chimperor will make it just that much worse.

Cleo, I knew anyone as smart as you had to see through Shrub.

[levi.livejournal.com]

And, personally, the other one is batshit insane. But that's just my opinion...

[naufiel.livejournal.com]

I feel a cold, nauseous political fatigue, partly because I live in Alabama (just as she lives in Texas), and I know that my vote isn't going to count for much, thanks to the electoral college

You never know, actually. It all adds up to turn-out. I mean, if you've got a ton of Democrats and liberals turning out to the polls because they want to make sure their vote counts, and all the Republicans stay home because they decide "Hey, we're in Alabama, Bush is going to win anyways," you might get the impossible. :)

Okay, I am dreaming, but it's a nice thought.

The nice thing about Kerry, and his stance on abortion really sums it up, is that he personally is a Catholic and conservative, but he is able to recognize that not all of his constituency is, and so he votes with his constituency and practices his Catholicism in private. It pisses off the Church like nobody's business, but it is refreshing to find a politican who does not project his views on to the people who elected him.

Oh, and hi! I'm a lurker who couldn't keep her mouth shut. :)

[vampychick.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine has a theory that if every college student in Alabama could be persuaded to vote Democrat, we might win the state due to low voter turnout among the Republicans.

She's probably wrong on her numbers, and there's no way everybody's going to vote Dem anyway *eyes the four W stickers she can see from the computer lab window* but hey, it gives her hope.

He so does look like a monkey.

[bluemarie.livejournal.com]

And that's one of the saddest things about this election--of the only two candidates with a ghost of a chance of actually getting elected, one of them is conservative, and the other one is... even more conservative.

The word that pops into my mind first to describe Bush is not "conservative." I think this administration's attacks on our country's Constitution merit the description of "radical." If I feel like being polite.

[yarha.livejournal.com]

Oh, I dunno about the monkey-looks and whatnot, but I get the definite impression, especially from Iraq, that W's incompetent. And if we *must* have an empire, albeit a democratic one (haha! good job, that), I'd rather it be built by competent people.

Not really 'Darth' Cheney, so much as 'Dark Helmet' Cheney. :p 'Darth' Cheney is an insult to Dark Lords of the Sith everywhere. ;)

Yarha, Seduced by the Stupid Side of the Force