I had dinner last night with an old childhood friend. We're the same age and have the same upper-middle-class upbringing, but living two completely separate lives. She's got a great career, thinking of starting a family and purchasing a house in our hometown with her husband. Meanwhile, I'm single, no prospects for a serious relationship, have an ambiguous career path and can barely afford to deal with my monthly rent. She's still upper-middle-class. I'm lower on the totem pole. (Another reason, I have no interest in attending my high school reunion.)
Anyways, we got to talking politics at dinner and she turns to me and says with all seriousness, "I always vote, but I can safely say this is the first time I'm actually looking forward to voting." My thoughts exactly. Although there was never a time I didn't feel like ousting the current fascest regime. I thought my friend had become politcaly enlightened through the course of leaving her upper-middle-class family for the real world. "Seriously," she said, "Obama scares me!"
I always find it amusing to encounter someone with different political views than me. I figure most of the people I know are in the same situation as me: broke, single, disenfranchised, jaded and hating on "The Man". Being surrounded by people just like me most of the day, it never occurs to me that someone my age could be a conservative Republican.
"What do you mean, he 'scares' you?" I asked hoping somewhere that I wouldn't hear anything remotely absurd, or some word vomit I'd already heard on Fox News. "All this talk of change," she said.
Yes, change is frightening. I agree. But at this point there are two ways we can go in this country: 1.) dive head-first into the macro-chasm that is the inevitable doom of our civilization as we know it by staying on the path we're already traveling or 2.) make some drastic changes where everyone chips in for the greater good. Oh, and of course, there's secret option #3: nuke the damn country and start from scratch.
That's not going to happen. (I hope.)
I've become a bit of a socialist these last few years. Perhaps its the fact that I can't afford to buy a house, pay up the wazoo to have less-than adequate HMO healthcare, and don't see the point in fighting a war that shouldn't even involve us. Maybe it's because of the people I surround myself with. Or, maybe I've always felt like this.
So, turning to my friend, I said, "Well, you know what scares me?" She was incredibly astonished at my answer. "Oh, I think it's brilliant what McCain did by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate," she said to my horror.
Brilliant, yes indeed, as far as strategy goes. He obviously figured that if the Dems play the black card, he'd play the female card. (I'm not writing anything people don't already know.) I went into my "I hate Sarah Palin" tyrade. If I'd had a soap box, I would have stood on it for sure. "She hunts wolves from helicopters, she doesn't believe the ice caps are melting and that polar bears are endangered species. She doesn't believe in sex education in public schools, preaches abstinance while her 17 year old daughter ends up knocked up. She doesn't believe in equal pay for women and is anti-abortion even in cases of rape and insest." I forgot to add that she also practices witchcraft. But why make witches look bad?Anyways, we got to talking politics at dinner and she turns to me and says with all seriousness, "I always vote, but I can safely say this is the first time I'm actually looking forward to voting." My thoughts exactly. Although there was never a time I didn't feel like ousting the current fascest regime. I thought my friend had become politcaly enlightened through the course of leaving her upper-middle-class family for the real world. "Seriously," she said, "Obama scares me!"
I always find it amusing to encounter someone with different political views than me. I figure most of the people I know are in the same situation as me: broke, single, disenfranchised, jaded and hating on "The Man". Being surrounded by people just like me most of the day, it never occurs to me that someone my age could be a conservative Republican.
"What do you mean, he 'scares' you?" I asked hoping somewhere that I wouldn't hear anything remotely absurd, or some word vomit I'd already heard on Fox News. "All this talk of change," she said.
Yes, change is frightening. I agree. But at this point there are two ways we can go in this country: 1.) dive head-first into the macro-chasm that is the inevitable doom of our civilization as we know it by staying on the path we're already traveling or 2.) make some drastic changes where everyone chips in for the greater good. Oh, and of course, there's secret option #3: nuke the damn country and start from scratch.
That's not going to happen. (I hope.)
I've become a bit of a socialist these last few years. Perhaps its the fact that I can't afford to buy a house, pay up the wazoo to have less-than adequate HMO healthcare, and don't see the point in fighting a war that shouldn't even involve us. Maybe it's because of the people I surround myself with. Or, maybe I've always felt like this.
So, turning to my friend, I said, "Well, you know what scares me?" She was incredibly astonished at my answer. "Oh, I think it's brilliant what McCain did by choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate," she said to my horror.
Anyways, in the spirit of irony we're having a promotions contest to see which East Bay resident and reader of our paper could come up with the best and most catchiest ode to Sarah Palin. I really like this one. Hope the rest are just as awesome:
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