Every Four Years
A Meditation on the U.S. Political Circle Jerk
I’m fed up! I’ve had about as much as I can take when it comes to election year bullshit, and it’s only February. I was pretty much done with it in January, but still it persists. Maybe I just have a talent for noticing patterns, or maybe my ADD makes me notice everything but what people expect me to notice. Whatever the case, I’m sick of it.
Every four years without fail, the media begins the show. They pitch the grand circus tent and start the grand spectacle. Each time a little bit earlier than the last. They launch propaganda and push whatever candidate manages to buy them first. We hear grand stories about these “fine” individuals that will soon take the stage, but it’s always the same.
Every single person up there is the best of the bottom of the barrel. Every candidate is an asshole who has their own interests in mind. There’s a reason that politician is one of the top professions of sociopaths. It’s because genuinely good and decent people typically want nothing to do with the horrendous things you’ll need to do as a politician and to be successful at it. But every four years people pretend that we’re not picking the asshole we hate the least.
The liberals will argue that the conservative candidates are bad people. The conservatives will argue that the liberals are socially and economically irresponsible. The truth of the matter is that they are actually both right, but not in the way you’d think. Whether liberal or conservative, none of the candidates are actually good people and neither set of candidates are guaranteed to be socially or economically responsible.
What we need is a balance. We need someone who knows when to be tough and when to be merciful. But we’re not really going to get that from a group of functional sociopaths. We’ve put forward two strong perspectives on how the country should be run, but most voters fall into neither camp.
Because most people fall into neither camp, the media constructs a year-long series of spectacles meant to divide the country and convince people to vote a certain way. Politically this works like a charm, but socially it divides the country. Friends become enemies, and suddenly family members who were in good standing, suddenly can’t stand each other.
I’m honestly fed up with it all because I end up watching my friends and respected peers argue. I see people judging each other based on how they each intend to vote. But truth be told, we’re all really angry at the wrong people.
This three ring circus only works because the general public has little to no critical thinking skills. They don’t understand the political system, nor even the basics of economics. They have at best a rudimentary understanding of how it all works, so they all end up fighting like cats and dogs.
I have friends in other countries who ask me all the time, why politics are so brutal out here. The answer is simple. We have two parties, and a nation that is the size of several countries. Culturally we are divided into something like eleven different nation states. It’d be like the whole of Europe deciding on a leader to represent them every four years.
So naturally it’s a political bloodbath. It’s a ruthless battle to be the leader of the United States, fought by functioning sociopaths, aided by the mainstream media, and teams of image and branding consultants.
Every election year we somehow forget that politicians are assholes, bought and sold by corporations. They scratch each others backs, telling the general populace that they are acting in our best interests. But really it’s all about money and power.
There is no decision without consequence. There is no choice that we’re going to make that will prevent pain or suffering. Instead, it’s just about choosing the asshole on the stage which you think is going to fuck you over the least.
Because the media’s already been bought by the candidates, you’re not going to get enough accurate information to make an educated decision. Instead, they are going to tell you that the candidates giving them the most money are the greatest thing since sliced bread.
They lie to us every four years, telling us that this one person is different. They act like this one asshole is gonna change everything. He (she)’s the fucking messiah, and they aren’t like the rest of the ego-maniacal sociopaths on the stage. No, this asshole is different than the other assholes. They are going to turn everything around.
It’s a lie, and I’m tired of the lies. I’m sick of this war that starts up every four years. I’d appreciate it a lot more if the media and politicians were honest about how they intended to fuck me. Lube, no lube, and whether or not they’re going to wine and dine me first. I’m tired of the ignorant children, praising their new found gods and placing them on pedestals, only to curse them in the months following their inauguration.
It’ll happen this election year and the next, and the next after that. They’ll elevate people to godhood, alienate people in their lives, and throw away all logic and reason for twelve horrific months. Only for these wretched souls to find themselves waking up in a daze afterward, remembering once more that the job of politicians may be to serve, but that in practice their job is always in serving themselves.
