Defenestrating Thoughts from the Bivouac

I’m getting really tired of all the political campaigning and I can’t wait till the election season is over. I’m so glad that my Media Center lets me fast forward commercials, because I really, really hate the TV ads: “Vote for me, here’s a picture of me with a veteran. Here’s another of me and a kid. Here’s a black and white picture of my opponent with some red words. I added ominous music in case you were still thinking of voting for him.”

It seems the politicians are counting on the apathy and ignorance of the populace to help them win. By apathetic, I don’t necessarily mean that people don’t care, rather, they don’t care enough to listen and fully understand issues before deciding. Instead, people generally reflexively vote for party or even choose the candidate that they would rather have a beer with.

Incumbents for the most part run on the same platform they ran on last election. I think this means they didn’t accomplish what they said they would while they were in office. So if they were ineffective, kick ‘em out! But all the challengers promise is “to do things different” and move us in a “new direction”, and have no clear end-to-end plans. Also, they apparently don’t know that “different” and “new” are not necessarily better.

I really wish that we had an option on the ballot that said, “None of the above. Find some more candidates.” It would be really helpful in some of these local races.

Or just make it possible for both candidates to lose. What if the system said that you couldn’t win an election unless you got a majority of all eligible voters (instead of just those that voted)? How interesting would that be? :-)