Look, I’m a realistic person. I know not everyone lives with the CNN news crawl jacked into the back of their brains like something out of the Matrix, which is how it’s starting to feel to me at this point in the election. I realize we all have jobs and lives and families and right now most of us are in the midst of trying to gather cardboard to build a shantytown for the coming Not So Great Actually Depression.
Things move fast these days and so I’m not talking about you not knowing the finer points of Obama’s health care plan or McCain’s position on government spending. I don’t expect everyone to mainline this stuff; frankly, given my own constant tension headache and incipient espresso addiction, I’d be scared if everyone was as cracked out on this election as I am.
I just have no patience for the dude who uses, “Man, I dunno anything about this stuff,” as an excuse for not spending 10 minutes on a Tuesday every four years to hire the guy who’s gonna run our entire lives. Newspapers are sold on every corner. If you own a TV, this stuff is beamed into your home from the air like a magical alien space-ray from the future every evening for free. Your local library has a computer that is a portal to an Internet positively seething with info, most of it not containing cuss words or naked people, though you can find that stuff if you want it, too.
I have no patience for the hipster who thinks you’re being a sucker by wearing an Obama shirt or a McCain button. “The system” may be unfair and it may be fixed for rich people and it may be overrun with corruption. Guess what? By walking away and shrugging, you’re not taking some rebellious position (sophomore, please), you’re just ceding control of that system to the people who, in your view, have screwed it up. Nice job, slick. Enjoy your ironic detachment and your Amstel Light.
A.