The comfort of opinions without the discomfort of thought

If your answer to the question, “Why are you voting for _________” includes anything about hockey, mothers of five, cocktails or beers, or being able to have a conversation with the person (because they don't talk all smart-like), you are not using your brain and actually evaluating a candidate on the issues. You know, those boring policy thingies that they push once they're sworn in? Yeah, see it isn’t their personality or ability to drive a minivan to a hockey game or even the fact that decades ago he may have been in a box. What really is going to affect your life is the legislation and decisions they make. The campaign is just a show. The next four years will be the real thing.

And to all of you Undecideds out there. You wear your “Undecided” status like it’s a badge of honor. Because the media talks about your group all the time, you think, “Wow, my opinion really matters! I’m important!” Well you know what? You ARE important, but in a dangerous way. If you seriously aren’t informed enough about the issues to be able to pick a candidate by this point, then dude – just don’t go vote. Your vote will be lazily decided by something stupid reported in the media or a campaign ad at the last minute, as it probably has been every other election.

For example, a person interviewed on MPR stated that she was (in the past) super liberal, way to the left and she was like totally voting Obama. But then the whole scandal with his church came up and now she’s voting for McCain. The idiocy behind that important decision floors me. What the fuck….really?! A woman interviewed yesterday on NPR said she wasn’t going to vote for Obama. And when asked why, she paused, and then offered this, “I'd rather not say. I’m just a McCain girl!” Yep – no substantive reason. If she just picks someone and doesn’t have to think too hard about the “why” question, then it’s soooo much easier on her brain and she can devote more time to watching the latest reality television show.

Our country is obsessed with the Myth. The myth of small town America and hockey moms that erodes the intelligence from the minds of people in this country. The myth that allows a man to go on and on and on about being in a box - the War Hero. Palin reminded us all that the only person running for president who actually fought for us (America) is John McCain, insinuating that only physical fighting is how one truly serves and fights for our country. Belittling Obama's fight for underprivileged Americans as a community organizer. Right. That's not nearly as romantic as holding a gun and being captured and put in a "box." That's a Hollywood movie, baby! That's what I'm voting for - the best story, best personality, best hair! I'd have a beer with him! Ugh... The myth sells, and America is buying.

I think President Kennedy put it best about the danger of the Myth:

"For the great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie—deliberate, contrived, and dishonest—but the myth—persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinions without the discomfort of thought."

-President John F. Kennedy, commencement address at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, June 11, 1962.—Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1962, p. 234.