Blowing Off Steam

I’ve become totally, and most likely irrevocably, cynical in regards to the US’s future. Our current leaders, at least on the national level, are narcissistic children with virtually unlimited access to power, and there aren’t any adults to smack their hands when they get out of line (because they too are children.)

I don’t vote in elections anymore, and if that makes me a “bad” American, then so be it. I gave it up before, only to think things might actually get better in 2008. When I realized that even the skin color doesn’t matter, and that we get the same people doing the same things no matter what letter in parenthesis they have beside their name, I gave up. I don’t even bother voting in local elections anymore. I find it tedious and pointless to choose which of the two evil choices is “lesser” when there’s truly no “lesser” about it.

It annoys me when people disagree with me about this, or if they agree but only about “the other party” while insisting their party is different. They’ll rattle off one factoid after another showing how their party is the good guys while the other party murders puppies and steals candy from babies, completely ignoring the fact that someone from the other side could do the same thing about their side. Facebook is full of this kind of thinking. Both sides are right about the other side, and completely wrong about their own side.

It’s even worse when people agree with me, but say “well, if you don’t vote you have no right to complain!” Excuse me? Of course I have the right to complain. I have as much right to complain as the person who “voted” for some write-in candidate. I certainly have as much right (or more) to complain as the people who voted for the candidate who won. And if the people who voted for “Evil A” instead of “Evil B” can complain because their evil guy didn’t win, then I certainly can complain about all the fucking evil!

I still pay attention to social issues, to a point, but I’m too lazy to be any more involved than liking a post or sharing an article on Facebook that I agree with. People are bound to change their minds if I post enough witty, snark-laden messages for my point of view, right? Sure, it happens all the time.

I try to justify my non-involvement, but the truth is I probably wouldn’t be any different in a country where the leaders acted like adults with a responsibility to work together and lead to the best of their abilities. We’ll never know for sure, though, because I’m not sure such a country exists.