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The Upcoming Election & Those Pesky Conventions

Over the past two weeks I've been debating with friends over the upcoming election.  The debates have given us all fodder and we've gone to town on it. One thing should never be forgotten about these conventions.  They are held in huge buildings and the speeches are made to cater to a specific audience - their particular party.  If you are a Republican, you somehow find a way to blame Clinton for Bush's debacle and if you're a Democrat you blame Bush for everything Obama inherited.  There might be a right or a wrong to this method of logic, but that's not what interests me.

What has me seeing red, but not in a right wing way, is the severe divide in this country and it's principles.  A lot of people have been bringing up the Reagan question recently, "are you better off than you were four years ago?"  What people forget is that this question, while appearing harmless, was used to prey on our fears.  Reagan cleverly wove a tale of America being a soon to be victim of atrocities.  He was able to do this due to the Iran Hostage Crisis. The one that conveniently ended as he was being sworn in. What Reagan did was ask ourselves to question our safety.  The problem now, is we've experienced true terror and we know we are more prepared.  So Romney is asking us this same question, but failing one key ingredient.  We are better off.  We don't have a country in a recession.  We have unemployment moving downward, not upward.  We have jobs being created at a pace that might seem slow, but let's also remember, almost that same number were lost during Bush's presidency.  Not his entire presidency, but his final twelve months.   Almost a million in his final month in office alone.  Are we better off?  Yes Mitt, actually we are.

The conventions are all hoopla, with some pretty good speeches.  Talk is cheap though.  It's also very subjective.  I myself did not watch any of the speeches live.  I didn't want to be swayed by cheers or someone's delivery.  Instead I read their words.  The only speeches I went back and watched were Ryan's and Bill Clinton's. Why?  Honestly, because these are the two guys, both parties put up as their "smartest guy in the room."  In a pissing contest, Paul Ryan couldn't hold Bill Clinton's dick.  Clinton is to speeches what Snooki is to meatheads.  A beacon of light.  That being said, they all talked and talked and talked.  And the next day I argued and argued and argued.

Four years ago, I wasn't on Facebook or Twitter.  I wasn't even on my computer that often.  I talked and texted and that usually steered clear of political debates.  This year, I'm entrenched in daily squabbles and I must admit, I'm a little upset.  You see my counterparts, well many of them, have taken to the same tactics that their conservative leaders have.  They have made the arguments personal. They've brought up my employment status and my desire to work (is there really such a thing as a desire to work?).  They have brought up my affinity for cocktails at the bar.  They have brought up my collecting unemployment and being one of those who "accepts" what they deem to be handouts.  Here's a few things they don't know.  I left my last job because of a lack of work and in many ways to save a friendship which meant more to me than a paycheck.  In retrospect, some might say I cut of my nose to spite my face, but I value money very little compared to the things in life you can't buy.  The other thing they don't realize is that I've worked part time almost the entire time, I was collecting and claimed that. I also wasn't receiving the max unemployment anyway, which would have given me over $22,000.  I received less than half of that after claiming the days I worked, sometimes making as little as $80 and paying $26 in cab rides.  Finally, my going out is greatly exaggerated.  I was called an alcoholic by about four people in the month of August. I drank once the entire month.  Many of these people, come home from work and crack open a beer.  In my entire life, between living at home and with my parents, aside from a glass of wine occasionally with dinner, I have probably drank at home less than ten times in my life. In the eight years I've lived at my current address, I've drank three beers, two bottles of wine and one half of a bottle of limocello, ever.  Hardly qualifying me for alcoholic status.  This however plays right into my point for this blog.  Perception over reality.

Friends of mine hemmed and hawed over the speeches last week at the RNC, but I knew they would.  They had decided before ever sitting down to watch them, they were great.  They were able to overlook the blatant lies, which fact checking websites were abuzz with during the night and the following day. They didn't see the amateurish style or the nervousness in Paul Ryan.  They saw Anne Romney as the suffering wife, but were able to erase from their brains, that she attended private schools and lived with Mitt off his stock options or in a house her father-in-law paid for.  These facts aren't important.  They then turned on the DNC and found it nauseating. They couldn't believe the spectacle and the outright lies (many of which weren't untruths at all).  When there wasn't anything to pick on in the speech, they picked on how it was spoken.  Remember, last week, they had a demented old man come out and ad lib a speech to a chair, but our nations vice president said literally, 64 times when he meant figuratively and he's got dementia.  Here's the thing.  None of this surprised me.  For months now, I've been talking about this and when I mention someone on the blue team their frustration turns to hate.  Reagan sold arms to the Middle East, but Obama is a terrorist?  Paul Ryan has lied more in a month than I have lied in my life and he might be the second in command of this country.  Joe Biden had a stutter as a child and young man, ashamed of it he avoided speaking in public.  So he pauses a bit too much.  Talks without thinking (which is what can cause a stutter) at times.  And invariably puts his foot in his mouth.  Joe Biden is human.  I once saw a girl wearing and ugly necklace.  I laughed at it and asked "What'd someone give that to you the day before they died and you feel you out it to them?"  The girl, looked up and smiled. "Yes."  In a million years, I never wanted to hurt her and I did.  About 15 years ago and I'll never forgot how bad I felt.  You know what though.  I'm friends with her to this day.  Our words don't always mean as much, when someone knows you are good at heart.  I truly feel Joe Biden is a good person.  I do not feel that way, personally, about  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.  They are both liars and honestly, not very good at it.

I value honesty in a person more than anything.  I myself have not been honest at times and I have lost sleep over it.  I have lied to people to make myself feel better and I've lied trying not to hurt some.  I don't do that anymore.  I've grown. I've almost lost to much.  I don't lie.  I don't cheat. I don't steal.  I don't take what's not mine and I give what I can. I'm not better than anyone, but I'm definitely not worse.  Every man should have a code.  Mine is honesty and when I see it in a person, or in this case, a candidate, I value it.

In the past weeks, I have had friends call me names personally while defending liars they probably will never meet.  They have said awful things and I have at times responded with personal remarks, but it should be known at times I haven't because I could really screw someone if the wrong person reads it.  I don't ever want this or anything I write to cause someone money or a relationship and believe me I could do both in seconds if I wanted to.  I know people who call me a left wing lunatic and preach their conservative ways, but hire illegals and cheat on their taxes.  I know people who say awful things about people...terrible things and are intimate with them.  I know people who screw people over constantly and talk about virtue.  I got accused of a blanket statement today, but I started thinking about all the people I know who do bad things.  I started thinking about those who get by on getting over on someone or the government.  I made a mental list quickly in my head and it was nearly all conservatives.  Not only that, but conservatives who are flag waving, Bible thumping, politicos. I started thinking of those I know who stepped into their careers.  Those who have sat back and had things handed to them.  All of them, every last one, a conservative.  It's that hypocrisy that angers me.  That fuels the fire when I argue.  The problem is I have some shred of decency that doesn't allow me to out them.  Doesn't allow me the leverage to fight the fair fight.

Today I read Joe Biden's speech.  A speech I was told was absolutely awful and a garbled mess.  I didn't listen to the man, because the applause breaks I find nauseating.  I read a speech about a man who loves a woman.  A man who is honored to serve his country.  A man who respects his boss.  A man who seems to sincerely believe America is on it's way back.  I read Obama's speech and saw much of the same. A man who knows now what he didn't know four years ago.  A man who is realizing hope and change is only possible if everyone wants it.  Four years of realizing not everyone wants that has been rough. Listen to the numbers that these men have thrown out.  Listen to that of their competitors.  Then look it up.  It doesn't take as long as you think.  There are even websites, unbiased websites, that do it for you.  Almost across the board you see Romney and Ryan are not true or partly true.  On the Obama and Biden side, it's almost true or mostly true.  You might not like what you hear, but I guess in November, you have to hold that lever in your hand and decide, are you someone who values honesty and truth or would you rather be sold a bridge?

If you think I am right or if you think I'm full of shit, isn't really that important.  What's important is that you let your voice be heard.  Sitting back and saying "they're all the same" or "he's going to win or lose the state with or without me" might have been what got George Bush elected in 2000.  Remember that. More people voted for Gore and he lost.  Two states were decided by a few hundred votes.  Here's the crime.  49% of the registered voters in this country did not cast a vote in that election.  Twelve years later, all 100% are paying for that decision.

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