As it all kicks off...

[apolla]

I've been thinking quite hard about some of the stuff posted lately, and it may not have helped that I was watching The West Wing earlier.

Basically, I've read some well-thought out posts lately and I've seen this 'wizards for bush' comm and so on and so on. This is the opinion of someone in Britain who sees the world from a slightly skewed perspective most of the time. It's my opinion. I don't ask that you agree, I don't dislike anyone for disagreeing, but I know everyone on my flist is intelligent enough to understand that it is my opinion.

As far as US presidential candidates this year go, I'm distinctly underwhelmed. Just as here in Britain the gulf between the main two parties gets ever smaller, I find it hard to actually really tell the difference between the two. What sets Michael Howard apart from Tony Blair really? What is the difference between Kerry and Bush? Does anyone really believe their world will change after November, whatever the outcome? I don't think it will.

I really do not like George W Bush. I think he's seriously deficient in every criteria for serious leadership. Mind you, is John Kerry much different? He's a fairly uninteresting senator who doesn't seem to have really excelled in that position.

I actually think it's a bit like that Chris Rock movie Head of State, where they pick a small-fry no-hoper because none of the big guns want to oppose a sitting president with little chance of losing. Difference is, John Kerry is no Chris Rock and John Edwards is no Bernie Mac.

The differences between the two sides are tiny. The differences come between the people supporting one or the other. I am dismayed that there's so much vehement opposition between friends. The politicians are going to screw the lot of you over, no matter how you vote.

Those politicians do not care about you. They do not care about you because you're not giving them thousands of dollars in fundraising. They do not care about what you think or feel. They do not really care that you have no money/job/hope. Like politicians here, they are interested in the following:

1. Getting power.
2. Making money.
3. Getting on television.
4. Themselves.

(in no particular order)

It would take a politician with the grace of Gandhi, the charisma of Frank Sinatra and the political savvy of Machiavelli to make me believe otherwise.

Red or blue, it really doesn't matter on either side of the Atlantic- they are not interested in helping you. America and Britain will remain in Iraq being blown to bits. The poorest of society will remain so while the rich get richer. We will pay our taxes but the health service will get worse. We will pay local tax, but our pavements will get ever more broken up, our schools will continue to fall apart.

This is the way of the world. It really doesn't matter who you vote for because they're all the same. John Kerry is not the Second Coming (the first being another JFK who failed to really make that much of a difference). George W Bush will not make your life better. If you're unemployed in September, you'll probably still be unemployed in December (like me).

No matter who wins, there will be balloons and confetti and the promise of better things ahead. You'll only get the balloons and confetti.

The world will continue to turn. It is as it has always been.

In the meantime, how about we all try to stay pals? This is the time to stick together, not let things rent us all asunder.

Comments

[no-remorse.livejournal.com]

This is the way of the world. It really doesn't matter who you vote for because they're all the same.

I refuse to think like this. Basically you are declaring the concept of democracy as it is right now bankrupt. You have a point, when I look at the actions of British government vs the opinion of the majority of the British population in February 2003, but we have nothing else. What you recommend is apathy and however much democracy is a joke right now, apathy isn't going to change anything. If you have a problem with democracy as it is, then sign up for a revolution, but don't recommend sitting in a corner and staring at a wall. That surely isn't helping matters.

The poorest of society will remain so while the rich get richer. We will pay our taxes but the health service will get worse. We will pay local tax, but our pavements will get ever more broken up, our schools will continue to fall apart.

No. Maybe the system sucks, but things don't get better with this kind of attitude. Why do you think there is a health service in the first place? Why can women vote? Why do people can sit on the bus where they want to? Why do you have an education in the first place?

Because once upon a time people fought to make the world a better place, bit by bit. Of course, if you do nothing, nothing will improve. Maybe voting will not change the world, but this eternal complaint that things can get only worse, is...

Things can get better, thing have become better in the past. Maybe you feel comfortable in your pessimism, but... I've seen the world living through four years of G.W. Bush and maybe Kerry isn't better, maybe Kerry won't make much of a difference, but I know that voting Kerry is at least hoping for a change. Voting Bush means that you are utterly happy with the way things are.

What is the difference between Kerry and Bush?

That was the question people asked in 2000, but somehow I suspect that a President Gore might made different choices. I certainly can't imagine him suggesting an amendment to the constitution to ban gay marriage.

By the way

[no-remorse.livejournal.com]

I am sorry, if I sound a bit harsh, this topic is just... well.. you know.

Re: By the way

[apolla.livejournal.com]

I know. Don't worry about it, I'm not all that easily offended or narked*, matey. *hugs*

*I'm very easily offended and narked by Phil Collins.

[apolla.livejournal.com]

Oh, I completely agree that great things have been achieved by the people in times gone by. I completely agree that pessimistic apathy isn't going to help. Mind you, I don't think that at the moment trying to make things different will help either. I don't see how it will.

I wasn't suggesting sitting in a corner staring at the wall- I'm one of those people who will always vote because I know exactly what was done for me to be allowed to do it at all. What I am saying is that we shouldn't be taking it out on each other and upsetting each other when we have a difference of political opinion. If we take issue with something, we should be taking it up with the people that can make a difference. But instead, people are tearing chunks out of their fandom friends instead.

Maybe President Gore would've been different. I just don't see a difference between the two options available this time. Perhaps I'm just so used to living in a world of spin doctoring that I now believe nothing, but I don't think politicians ARE in it for us. I think if we want change, we DO have to do it ourselves. After all, votes for women was hardly a political issue before ladies of means began throwing themselves under the king's horse, and nobody thought the Irish were serious about independent home rule until a group of them took the GPO on Easter 1916.

Overexaggerating? Maybe. It's hardly anything the politicians haven't done. Overly cynical? Of course I am- I grew up with Thatcher and came of age with Blair. That would make even the most idealistic little hippie (and I was, once) a hardened cynic.

That said, I do take your point. Hope is a very powerful thing that will, if pushed hard enough, turn into action. I just don't think it will come from Kerry and I certainly don't think it will come from Bush.

Perhaps I sound a little anarchic or communist or something, I don't know. I haven't subscribed to any political theory for a long time. Will say this though:

Power to the people!