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at work yesterday with the kids, politics came up. "how much longer will bush be in power?" a girl asks. till january of 2009, i respond. "crap, we will all be dead by then," she exclaims. i respond that while bush has killed a lot of people, i'm sure some of us will still be alive at that time. this draws a glare from the teacher in the room. for a split second, we are like hagler and hearns, staring each other down in the center of the ring. and then, she looks away. the girl tells me she wants hillary to win because she "will mess with all the men." i ask, "what of barack obama?" (i figured she wasn't a big kucinich booster) she goes "who? isn't that one of the guys who blew up the twin towers?" i calmly explain his father was a black kenyan and his mom a white woman from kansas. is he "one of those people?" the girl wants to know, images of bearded fellows obviously flowing through her mind. this girl, by the way, is a senior in high school. she is a likeable young girl, stylish, a cute sense of humor. sadly, she is also an american. ignorance and political illiteracy are a fundamental aspect of our lives. why should she be any different? she wants hillary. she can't tell you why. maybe just because she is a "girl," just as we root for the home team in sports. life is a brand choice, a video game, a product for us to consume. remember how bush was the "regular guy," the guy that "you could have a beer with?" now, kucinich is "too short," he's a vegan in a land of meat eaters, his wife is 30 years younger than he is. so what if he has good ideas? what do ideas matter? yes, he was right about the war in iraq, but who cares? he is not electable. why, because we are told he isn't. just as nader wasn't, or sharpton wasn't, or henry wallace wasn't, or george mcgovern wasn't, or dick gregory wasn't.
the message is good things can't happen in our culture. people with decent ideas, who believe in peace and redistributing wealth and ending racism can't ascend to positions of power. if true, what does that say about our society? and, if true, then by what right can we call ourselves a democracy? is it a democracy that elects clean shaven, right wing stick figures who claim to be religious for fear of alienating voters? is it a democracy where our leaders are hand picked by media and corporate powers? is it a democracy when our two major parties practice a brutal, bipartisan foreign policy, and have been doing so for generations?
well, you may say, i have the freedom to complain to a blank screen and to have my thoughts read by a few outcasts. if it's so bad, you may say, why don't i leave? do you have a ticket you can give me? could you pay for my movers? could you get me free language lessons? could you get me a job in my country of choice? could you convince my loved ones to move with me? no? then shut the fuck up then.
god bless america