First things first
GO VOTE
(Unless, of course, you're a Republican. Then you can stay home.)
Very recently, Kevin and I watched Fahrenheit 9/11. I had put it in our netflix queue some months ago and Kevin moved it up to the top of the list because he wanted to see it before election day. I'm not sure why - Kevin's been screamingly anti-Bush since Bush made the primaries 4 years ago (and McCain didn't. Personally, I think we'd have been better off with either of the two secondary candidates from the 2000 election.) Seeing the film wasn't going to change either of our minds.
What it did do was scare the crap out of me. Some of the facts presented I already knew. What I didn't know about was exactly how cuddlesome the Bush's are with the Saudis. I knew Bush was an elitist snob - not the common Texas rancher like he wishes us to believe he is. And was outraged when he addresses a fund-raising dinner as "the haves... and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base." Or making a "hardline stance against terrorism" and exhorting the cameraman to "watch me make this drive" as he tees off in his golf game.
I have always thought of Bush as being a poor public speaker. Moore goes after that aspect of him with a vengence. The seven minutes he sat reading with the children in Florida while the Trade Towers were under attack were... frightening. On the one hand, would those seven minutes have made a difference to anyone? Probably not. But that he sat there, looking confused and dumbfounded - ON CAMERA because this was a photo-oppotunity - were just... very frustrating.
Moore represents in the second half of his film a point which I have been trying to make with my father for a while - there is a difference between supporting our troops and supporting the war. My father is a Vietnam Vet and he loathes Kerry because he thinks it was treasonous and a betrayal for Kerry to go over as a soldier in Vietnam and then renounce the war as being brutal and senseless. Um... just because I use pots doesn't make them less black. It actually means that I know what I'm talking about when I say the pot is black. I'm pretty damn familiar with it.
We all know - or should know - that the people fighting the war have nothing to do with the decisions about the war. In fact, the closer to making decisions about the war people are, the less personally involved they are. A fact Moore made clear in a painful little episode where he tried to convince congressmen and senators that their children should enlist and go to Iraq. One of the critics of the film I read said "Moore is shocked, shocked that the lower classes are the people who make up the army, a fact that has been true since Hamurabi crossed the mountains on elephants." Which is actually not true. In England, the second sons of the nobility and gentry bought their commissions. The sons of noble lords went to war with the common soldiers - you know, as in "I could get killed out here" war - and for many, many centuries, the British had the finest army.
I hate politics. I hate the news. I hate knowing how bad things are. And I feel like I can do nothing about it. Anyone who tells you "your vote counts" must have missed the 2000 elections where the president of the United States was selected by the Supreme Court and not by the millions of people who voted.
What it boils down to is that I am afraid. I am afraid of what - as a country - we have become in the eyes of the world. I am afraid that my voice doesn't count. And I don't like being afraid. No one does.
I am going to go vote now. I hope it makes a difference.
I really do.
You know, i hate politics. i try not to talk about politics. (No, I'm not unaware. No, I don't have my head in the sand. I just don't generally enjoy feeling sick to my stomach and that's what polictics - recently, like the last four years or so - has done to me. Make of that what you will.)
That being said....
When Kevin and I moved down to Chesapeake, naturally we're no longer in our old voting district. And you have to register your change of address anyway. So, of course, we did.
Kevin - who has grown up, matured, become more rational and changed his political preference since we started going out - is a registered Republican. (Or maybe he's an independant. He doesn't remember for sure.)
I. Am. Not. I'm a Dem. I've always been a Dem and I will always be a Dem until the United States of America comes out with a party who more actually believes that people have the right to do, think, and say what they want, marry who they want, fuck who they want. (And personally, I'm not against multiple marriages, either. If three people or eight people all want to be married and they can make it work out - GREAT for them!) Given that someone as completely liberal as I am is not likely to live through attempting to run for a political office - I'll go with the Dems for the time being.
We mailed out our change of address forms On The Same Day. About 15-20 days after we moved into our new apartment.
Kevin got his voter registration card back... about six days later.
I got mine...
Yesterday.
Yes. Ter. Day.
The election is in 3 more business days.
Kinda makes you go Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.