Our 2-week National nightmare is over. All that's left is a spot of media/politician hanky panky followed by odd outbursts by the Bronzed Ego.
One thing conventions do signify however is that the entire slog of this Presidential campaign has finally reached the beginning of the end. We've moved from "presumptive nominee" to "nominee" and soon it will be "President elect". In between these points I have to advise that it's still going to be wise to ignore the media, at least until after November and probably wait until after January (the inauguration) just to be on the safe side.
Again, some notes:
- No, this was not "the best convention ever" put on by the Democrats. It was a good convention, marked by all of the things the uneducated proletariat wants to see (Hollywood, politicians, Katy Perry, etc.) but it was always going to be drug down by the utter lack of quality that the Anointed One possesses as a Presidential candidate. It was a low ceiling, although they certainly bumped up against it.
- Politics is show-business for ugly people. And while that's (admittedly) a canard it's one that has the added benefit of being 100% true. Politics in the electronic age isn't about making and keeping so-called "promises", and it's certainly not a battle of ideals. Today politics is bread and circuses. Morgan Freeman hits the Stage and everyone gets rapturous about "God" all of the sudden. Katy Perry (HS Dropout) comes on stage, sings something and then extols the audience about the virtues of the Anointed One. People are ecstatic that Ms. Perry likes their candidate, it makes them feel cool somehow, as if they have something in common with the Katie.
- The truth is, we vote how we have been conditioned to vote. For the most part anyway. Yes there ae examples of people who break away from the family voting pattern, switch parties etc. etc. Most of those however are because a different conditioning took place outside the home. Right now, Democrat/Statist ideas are cool. "President Obama is your Daddy" would have, in a sane Republic, been laughed out of the public square and been made into a symbol of vapidness. Today however it's made Chris Rock (Chris freaking Rock) into a deep political thinker.
- The bigger scandal, if it can be called that, is that your vote doesn't matter. I know, voting is the "cornerstone of democracy" and you have an obligation to run to the polls and cast a vote for a horrendous person who is going to get away with it, I promise. Even if you think you are taking the time to study the issues you're not. Because there are people out there who are taking more time, it's their jobs, and have a much better understanding of the complexities of modern-government in the authoritarian age than do you.
Also, there are more people out there casting what are basically auto-votes, or votes that they cast almost without thinking, than you. There is no more useless form of personal expression in American Democracy than vote-casting, yet no form of expression has been held more sacrosanct despite having very little meaning in today's environment of creative electoral map-drawing and incumbent protection schemes. This is doubly true if your voting district is either deep red, or deep blue (and, it probably is).
Voting in America is nothing more than an exercise in crowd control. It's not about whether or not the Democrats or Republicans have the best ideas. It's whether or not their conditioning sticks. Once in power they then control the message to pass things they want to pass anyway.
- They can do this because the media is stupid. (With a few exceptions, mostly at the local, investigative level) Really stupid. While the linked article tries to make the case that Texas could do all sorts of cool stuff (instead of try and protect it's powers) with the money they used to sue, is anyone asking what could be bought with all of the money donated to politicians instead?
That's because the media have been conditioned just as we have. They've been raised (probably) in Democrat homes, taught in Democrat schools and graduated from Democrat-ran J-schools. They now work under Democrat bosses. They don't view taxation as bad or, honestly, even understand how it works, and they still operate under the assumption that politics is operating just as it has during the Watergate era. As political scandal grows increasingly sophisticated, reporters yearn for the days of large press pools and "press" tags jammed inside the bands of reporter fedoras.
Instead of reporting the news they 'analyze" the news or, worse, try to 'explain' to us the events of the day. The worst journalism possible is so-called "fact-check" journalism which is neither factual, or actually checks out all that much. In most cases it's just a reflection of how a particular reporter feels about an issue.
All of what we are seeing here is a ham-fisted attempt to dumb down the complicated into simple, bite-sized portions in order to stir up the easily irritated. Give Trump and Hillary this, they understand what makes the simpletons in their party tick and they are currently tugging on the right levers. For better or for worse.
At the end of this process one fact remains: Out of 300 Million(ish) people in the United States we have chosen, through a quasi-Democratic process, two of the worst among us to lead us. We have done so willingly, and we were just force-fed two shit-show spectacles congratulating us for hitting a new low.
If you watched however. I'm proud to say I didn't, not a second. And my life is better for it.
You should try it some time.
