In days of yore, say about 2 or more years ago, a candidate that was running for office that was known to be pro-choice, pro-gay rights, married three times, and known to have committed adultery would have been ruthlessly attacked by the religious right wing. Vicious ads would appear decrying how evil this person was. Who knows, some of the ads may have even been factual, at least in part. And none of this would really be a surprise to anyone, we would be expecting this sort of mud-slinging to be emerging from the religious right wing. How else would we know that they were Christians if not for the well-funded attacks on their fellow man or woman?
But things are changing, and sometimes, I swear that these changes occur merely to give me a headache. A few weeks ago, Giuliani received the backing of some (but certainly not all) of the right wing, most notably televangelist Pat Robertson. Others like Pat Buchanan, say that the social conservatives would essentially be making a Faustian bargain in an attempt to retain control of the White House if they voted for Giuliani. Well duh, isn’t that the deal we make everytime we vote? I mean, it’s not like we actually like the candidates, no matter which side of the aisle you are on. We vote for who we hate the least, or sometimes we vote for someone not because we like them, but because we dislike the other parties candidate even more.
Which is truly amazing, when you stop to think about it. All of the money spent on elections, all the time that candidates tell us the lies we want to hear, the astounding part is that we don’t vote our conscience, we vote our gut. If a candidate was the most qualified, most intelligent, and all around best leader, none of that would matter if they didn’t have the right look, or go to the right church, or any of the other weird little things that really make us vote for someone(those of us who actually bother to vote, that is).
And then we seemed surprised at how poorly our government works. The rampant corruption, pork barrel spending, the pay raises that the legislature gives itself. While we can complain about all of it, if things are ever going to change for the better, those changes will not come from our elected officials. Why would they want the system changed? They are making a very nice living of our complacency, and they always have the other party to blame. What could be better than that?
