You know what the worst part about living in Iowa is? (Insert random Midwest joke here.) No, it is the damn elections. Despite my decided lack of posts on it here, I am a decidedly politically minded guy. I read my political blogs every day, many by writers I have enjoyed in the past. Usually writers who have not necessarily maintained their fan following, quite possibly because of their out-spoken political beliefs. Which is stupid, I know, but look at the sales of someone like Orson Scott Card who posted on his blog his opposition for gay marriage. This was followed by hundreds of people suddenly deciding to boycott his works. Sure that’s their right and I respect that, but if everyone stopped enjoying entertainment from people they politically disagree with, I am pretty sure the entertainment industry would utterly and completely collapse. It is just a really dumb reason not to enjoy the writings of an author you enjoy. So, yeah, I believe I have good reason to avoid political diatribes.
Now don’t get me wrong in all of this. I like elections, I like the electoral system our country has in place, and I like to vote. Not that I am not one of these “Vote or Die” idiots by any means. I think you should avoid the voting booth like the plagues unless you know who you are voting for and why you want them in office. If you don’t know that, then stay away. I would rather this country’s voting public actually know and care why we are making said individuals are next leader. To quote Peter David, but I digress...
Anyone politically minded probably knows that Iowa is the first state to make its political decision through its January 3rd caucus. New Hampshire has the first primary on the 8th, but we beat them by moving it up even earlier. I honestly hate it too. Why? Campiagn ads.
Back in the mid-January days, I used to hate every four years because of the heavy handed ads over the Christmas period and that was when they tried to cut them back for the holidays. With the caucuses on January 3rd that will be impossible to do and our state will be forced in to (hell, it already has been) a season of holiday attack ads. I am already at the point where I want to punch Ron Paul, Fred Thompson, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and especially Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton right in the face. And one of those people is someone I am considering voting for! (I’ll let everyone out there try to guess who.) And Joe Biden has an ad on like every half an hour. Seriously, who is giving so damn much money to Joe freaking Biden for these things? You do know he has no chance in hell of winning right? At this point I have more respect for Giuliani, McCain, and Kucinich, mostly because most of their money is focuse elsewhere and I don’t have to see their mugs or hear their voices every other dang minute.
So, yeah, I have pretty much made my decision and on January 3rd I at least go place my vote. I am not really sure if my wife will as well as she will be going to the other cacus; with one vehicle it will be almost impossible for both of us to caucus. (Which BTW is why I miss my Illinois primary days where all you had to do was walk in and fill out your ballot.) But I will place my vote and hope for the best: that Iowans aren’t stupid enough to give their votes to the two terrible front runners in our state: Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton. I mean, really? Could we pick worse choices to represent both sides of the political spectrum?
One last thing, everyone should get out there and start studying their candidates of choice. Even outside Iowa, most of the country has only about two months now before their own elections. Go out there, study your candidates, and please vote early and often for them. Oh, and if you really want to figure out my political affiliation, you can probably find it through some of those links over on the side of the page. Be sure to drop me a line on any of them you make your way to though.
1 comment:
Actually, not putting money in the pocket of a writer whose public statements or behaviours you disagree with is the same as not putting money in the pockets of any other producer of a commodity whose public statements or behaviours you disagree with. If I feel strongly enough about Nike using child labour in Korea to stop buying their shoes, despite the fact that I find their shoes comfortable and appealing, then why is it wrong for me to feel strongly enough to stop consuming a writer's fiction when that writer publicly espouses and encourages an opinion to which I am vehemently opposed. It's a free country -- he can say whatever he wants -- but why should he get my money, when other writers who don't piss me off write stuff that's just as good? Heck, less established writers can take heart in the fact that there are more established writers who are diverting entertainment dollars away from themselves, since those dollars could end up in the struggling writers' pockets.
Hg
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