Saturday, November 1, 2008

The bar is on the ground.

If there's anything this election season has very clearly demonstrated, it's that American has really low standards when it comes to everything. Well, I should start by saying this became obvious when Bush was elected a second time, but it's getting bad now.

Presidential Debates. We all know they aren't really debates; it's just a chance for each candidate to spew our their party's platform once again on TV while making some accusations. Most of the time though, it seems like pretty simple rhetoric decides who is deemed the winner of each debate. Next to people siding with their party, if the candidate comes off as civil, or maybe aggressive, or whatever the audience wants, they win. So in other words, it's not even a question of which political ideology is best, because people will just side with their party - it's all about their damn body language. Conservatives think Palin's winks are folksy and shows that she's just like the real America. Liberal's... eh, not so much. Democrats like Obama's ability to stay cool; McCain fans, I'm sure, say it shows some sort of weakness (what it is I'm not sure.)

Joe the Plumber: This guy does a fantastic job representing middle America and what they stand for: stupidity, the inability to provide answers, lying, and country music. I couldn't think of a better way to describe America, the stupid part especially. If it weren't for Palin, this would really take the cake for low standards. First, he lies about himself: he isn't called Joe and he's not even a plumber. It's so easy to imagine people acting just as stupid as Joe does when he can't quite answer a question. Not only does he have no good reason to claim 'a vote for Obama = death for Israel' when speaking with Fox News... But he doesn't even have a good reason when speaking to who asked him first! I'm not able to psychoanalyze anything, but I'll take a stab at Joe's thought process here: "This guy just put Obama and 'Death to Israel' in the same sentence... That's a negative thing... Uh, Obama shouldn't win... I KNOW! I'LL AGREE!" And millions of people actually identify with the man who can't explain his own positions.

Palin: Enough has been said already. But the mere fact that she inquired or attempted to ban books at a library should be enough to set anyone off. The retention of knowledge, theories, claims, or any text, in my view, is the most unethical act any person could possibly take. Obviously, I'm not a fan of Plato's Republic in this case. Not to mention, conservative's are for smaller government. I'm sure this would mean more freedom to read whatever. To sum it up though, we have millions of deluded citizens [see video below] who believe Palin, the inexperienced, creationist, folksy, VP candidate - who doesn't know what the VP does - is going to bring 'reform' to the White House. Maybe, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be good. I would also like to say, if having executive power over a state is good experience, then why not my cities mayor, Bob Walkup? He's Republican, check; has executive experience, check; and is smart, oh shit! The point here is that the Tucson area has a greater population than the entire state of Alaska (roughly 1,000,000 vs 600,000.)



McCain: He's an ok guy and can tell a good joke, but he has no intellectual vigor whatsoever. He graduated next to the bottom of his class at the Academy. Ok, maybe everyone else was just a better student. Well, there's no denying this guy has no idea what he's talking about when he claims that funding for scientific reasearch/projects are wasteful. Like I said before, what would he have said about the Keeling curve? Or research into the brain of a fly? He doesn't understand how important pure research is to our society. He doesn't realize that most major breakthroughs in technology find their starts in pure research, which in turn effects our economy and place in the world. Sure, his site says "Research for alt. energy!" or "Let's send men to Mars!" and this is fine, but it's practical science. Real science has only one purpose, and that is the pursuit of truth.

I shouldn't be so harsh though - his base for the campaign is the anti-science crowd after all. Maybe he's just presenting a value to them (the disregard of science and reason) as good reason for them to vote for him. McCain, after all, did admit that he accepts evolution in the third debate of the primaries, and he was one of the first 'big' Republicans to accept global warming also. So, he's not the worst when it comes to litaracy in science, but he could definitely use some brushing up.


Millions of Americans are going to vote for a campaign composed run off of McCain and two idiots who don't understand much. They don't understand science, they can't justify their claims, and yet they're apparently more qualified than the opposing ticket.

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