I hate politics. Anyone who knows me knows this. I don’t understand the nuances of it, and I can’t stand political “debates” or “discussions” that just end up being shouting matches about 95% of the time. (I may be lowballing there in my estimate). No actual discussion, no rational debates, just people yelling at each other. It’s no wonder I get headaches all the time lately.
I don’t understand all of the issues, and any time the news focuses on politics I do my best to tune it out. As anyone in the US right now can attest to, damn near everything on the news that isn’t related to a mass killing is politics. And our choices this election are lousy.
We’ve got, in one corner, Hillary Clinton. Yeah, she has political experience. On the other hand, she is–as my husband puts it–shady as fuck. And a possible “crook,” as he calls her. The “evidence” on the news is pretty damning, but the news channels can twist any facts to show whatever results that they want. So conservative news outlets are going to paint her in the most negative light they can, and liberal outlets are going to try to defend her. And they’ll end up getting in a shouting match over it about 95% of the time.
Then, in the other corner, we have Donald Trump. I seriously thought his campaign was a joke in the beginning. I thought he was trolling the nation. I thought he’d drop out like Ross Perot all those years ago. I thought it’d be something we’d all have a good laugh over when he was out of the running. I was so very, very wrong. He is seriously the Republican candidate for President of the United States. He might seriously become the President of the United States. Seriously terrifying. I mean, this guy has no political experience. He’s a businessman and a media personality. He has the most ridiculous combover I’ve ever seen. I’m honestly wondering which country will try to invade us first if he becomes president. I’m thinking Putin might find it amusing to just take us over like he did the Ukraine after hosting the Olympics. Kim Jong Un might see it as a great opportunity. Putin as our not-so-benevolent overlord might be something I could live with, but I don’t know how I’d handle a crazy-ass dictator.
Yeah, there’s an independent candidate…with the slogan “Feel the Johnson.” Okay, I get that it’s supposed to be catchy and memorable and possibly pandering to the millenials who might think it’s hilarious. But really, can you take a candidate seriously with a motto like that? I don’t know much–okay, anything–about his political standing. To be honest, I hadn’t even heard of him until I saw someone on my Facebook friends list like a post of his. Or maybe it was a sponsored post that just randomly showed up on my feed. Regardless, he was a nonentity to me before that. Totally not even on my radar.
So now it comes down to one of two choices: Either I choose the lesser of two evils (pretty much literally), or I choose the candidate about whom I know nothing.
Do I want to go for the first woman president? The first orange president? The mystery president? I just don’t know, and it scares me a little that not enough people are going to opt to “Feel the Johnson”…meaning that even if I vote for that option, I’ll still end up with one of the evils in Option 1.
Who will be the next POTUS? I can’t say. I just don’t know enough about it. All I know is what I see on the skewed media, and that’s really no help in making my decision.
Maybe I’ll do like that commercial where the lady’s tossing a coin to decide how to cast her vote. Maybe I’ll close my eyes and place my finger at a random point on the screen (if they do indeed conduct the polling in my area the same way they did the primaries). I don’t think I’ll know how I’m voting until I get to the polling booth in November. I’ve never missed a presidential election since I was first able to vote, and I don’t intend to miss this one. My vote may or may not end up for the winning candidate, but at least I had a small say in the outcome.
Stepping down from the soapbox now. I’ve gone and given myself a headache now. Time for some Tylenol and mind-numbing Internet.