Democrats, Republicans, and Potheads

Most of my friends are Democrats, and I grew up in a Republican household (though my parents have since renounced any party affiliation) so I feel I have a fairly good balance of perspective on the political nuances of both political parties. I'm an independent who leans toward libertarianism. I voted for Ron Paul in the Republican primary, because if he actually made the ballot I would have real hope that there are enough revolutionaries in this country, people who want radical change for freedom of individuals, to someday fix this mess of a country. I think he was actually the most qualified of all candidates to address our country's dire economic crisis, but oh well...

I watched some of both the Democratic and Republican conventions recently and they were both very interesting. Here is my concensus: I think the Democrats could easily rename their party the I-Hate-Bush-And-The-Rich-People-That-Support-Him party and the Republicans could rename theirs Because-Obama-Is-Inexperienced-And-We-No-Longer-Associate-Ourselves-With-Bush party.

The decision of McCain choosing Palin as a running mate is an obvious attempt to win over disgruntled Hillary supporters that were slamming Obama hard in the primary. McCain is desparate for on-the-fencers because many Republicans think McCain is too liberal for their party. If you happened to catch the GOP convention, you would notice that almost every speech was about about how inexperienced Obama is and how people should vote for the right person instead of merely voting for their respective party. Hello? That's your case for McCain: that he's not Obama? Weak. Terribly weak. I respect that he was a POW, but all the more reason, in my opinion, not to have him on any committee dealing in foreign policies/relations. How can a person not be biased after an experience like that? In any case, it was incredibly obvious that they are damn scared of Obama having enough support to win. If McCain really had good solutions to the country's problems I would assume they would have been disclosed in convention speeches. The GOP mantra: Vote for McCain 'cause...cause he's all we've got! And now Palin is getting all the press. People are almost more taken with her than McCain and all she did to win them over was give a speech. She is well-poised as a speaker and comes across very strongly; I'll give her that. And Guiliani was ruthless. Just ruthless. He's no idiot; he knows how to spin it. But he made me nauseous at the link of Iraq War to the 9-11 attacks. The fucking propaganda continues. A little hot button of mine.

I like Obama. I have always been impressed by him. The sad thing is that he could get crushed in this election because he doesn't play as dirty as the Republicans (Hillary would have- she's about as dirty as they come- why I'm glad she didn't make the nomination). But, the only thing he can ride on is his reputation for being a calm, honest, intelligent senator and that he disagrees with bush politics. One good slam to his credibility and it's all shot to hell. I bet McCain supporters are working overtime on that. I know almost nothing about Biden, so I can't really comment on him. Their mantra is basically: Change. If you want it, we're your only hope. There's no real weighing of whether or not their ideas of change will actually work, but apparently this message has been working for them. They should send Bush a Thank You card if they make it to the White House.

Grace, my landlady, is a staunch Hillary supporter (she has a mad crush on Bill, too) and she is always badmouthing Obama for lack of experience (sour grapes on him winning the Democratic ticket) and now she's badmouthing Biden because"he's ugly." So,...there ya go. Clearly her political issues differ from mine.

I heard someone talking about an experience on the el where an Obama supporter was trying to convince a homeless man to register to vote so he could vote for Obama. The man refused, saying there wasn't any reason to vote in this country so he would never register. Then the Obama supporter told him that Obama was planning to decriminalize marijuana if elected. With a sudden change of heart, the homeless man jumped up, asked where he could register to vote and if he could perhaps get some buttons to wear to support Obama's campaign. Ah, America. Gotta love it. Forget Iraq and Iran and the declining value of the U.S. dollar, rising unemployment, unaffordable healthcare and the loss of our constitutional right to privacy. The real problem at hand is keeping our potheads out of jail. ;)

Actually, one of my favorite Obama quotes regarding the use of marijuana in his past:
"I inhaled frequently; that was the point."
I love it.

So, ultimately this presidential election is a popularity contest that will come down to who has the best marketing and in the end, whoever gets the nomination will have an awful lot of crap to clean up - more than 4 years worth. It's gonna be a long haul to get this country back on a good, prosperous track. Whoever it is, Democrat or Republican, I know this much: I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.