I hate politics

[spatch]

There's some rabidly conservative planes flying above us right now. Well, I'm not so sure about the planes' own political leanings, but the banners trailing behind them are inspired by today's legislative circus over at the State House. The banners point to an anti-gay marriage website which implores us to do away with "the judges who started all this trouble" by "imposing gay marriage on us."

Oh, all this trouble! How well we all know the plagues visited upon us when the first same-sex couples emerged from Cambridge City Hall with marriage licenses, how the economy collapsed, dogs started meowing, ice cream lost its flavor, and how God punished Massachusetts by, uh, flooding New Orleans, I don't know.

And sure, I know how tough it was when gay marriage was imposed on me. What a surprise it was to wake up that day and hear that the state was imposing one on me, compliments of Judges Wossname and Whoever. (I mean, sure, Rick's nice and all, great sense of humor and he always makes sure to tivo Gilmore Girls, but golly this is not what I wanted.)

All hyperbole aside, what really galls me is that the only reason why such a stink is being made is because it's an election year. Gotta keep our partisan status quo! The basic freedoms of people who just want to live their lives with those they love are being toyed with simply because some politicians don't wanna give up their cushy ol' jobs unless it's a promotion, and will say anything to their constitchensee to stay in the game. Politics is for those who never matured beyond schoolyard bullying, who enjoy your typical pick-a-side-and-throw-rocks-at-the-other games. The whole "If you ain't for us you're agin us" crap. Witness the online genius who railed against Matt Amorello in the wake of his Big Dig mismanagement, calling him a "stubborn Dem hack." Oops, dude, the guy's a Republican. Just because Mitt Romney hates him doesn't automatically make him the Party You Despise. Way to jerk, knee. (I mean, I want Amorello out too, but not because he's affiliated with The Other Guys. I want him out because he's a tool. Being a tool transcends political affiliation.)

Oh hell. All this just disheartens me incredibly. Time to move to one's own island and declare a benevolent dictatorship or something.

Comments

[desultor.livejournal.com]

Politics is for those who never matured beyond schoolyard bullying, who enjoy your typical pick-a-side-and-throw-rocks-at-the-other games. The whole "If you ain't for us you're agin us" crap. ....Way to jerk, knee.

uh... i think there's some unintentional irony here.

maybe those who stay in politics have a better stomach than you or i for the schoolyard bullying, grandstanding, and rabid partisanship that seems to characterize much of politics today, but i don't think that too many people got into it because of a desire to pull hair and throw rocks. i think that they wanted to do some good, even if their definition of good doesn't fit with yours or mine, and even if they might have gotten lost along the way.

then of course there's the problem that if you want to stay in office or get into office, you have to appeal to the widest number of people, and i hate to break it to you, but the lowest common denominator isn't highly educated or particularly open-minded or sophisticated.

i'm not giving politicians a free pass, and i'm not saying that politics isn't fucked up. and i know that what you're saying is born primarily of frustration. i just feel it necessary to give caution about throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[desultor.livejournal.com]

ps - here are some really classy pictures of protesters i took that night at the cambridge courthouse

[ron_newman]

those are the lovely folks who were standing on an American flag while picketing. I saw them again in the Free Speech Cage outside the DNC in 2004.

[phonemonkey.livejournal.com]

That's the Phelps clan, aka Westboro Baptist Church.

They are absolutely batshit fucking loony. Their current schtick is to picket the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq* saying that said soldiers are being killed because the US is a Fag Nation.

The problem with WBC is that compared to them, everybody looks good. So you have all the nasty fundie motherfuckers saying "Look at these dreadful people! We're not like that! OK, we want to deny all rights to homos and force them to have psychotherapy to counter their 'abnormality' but we don't call them Fags! We're FWUFFY!"


*You know, I was distracted when I typed the above sentence, and I initially typed 'Vietnam' instead of 'Iraq'. No joke.