Pawsitively trying...

I once mused, “Are ugly people attracted to politics or do politics make people ugly?” There was a variance of responses, usually depending on how invested one was in the process. Some people took me literally and struggled to point out a lawmaker who they found physically attractive. That was incredibly amusing, as the number of women who found John Thune good looking mystified me. He reminds me of Skelator. And I have no desire to visit Greyskull.

But what I was really getting at was the seemingly ever-present dirtiness of politics. The negativity that offends/sways/turns off the masses for whatever reason. Maybe negativity is all that some of us understand anymore... I don’t want to believe that, but it does make sense to me.

I thought people got into public service to affect change in the world. I thought. Or at least I thought maybe some of them did. Some were after power and money, I’m sure. Some are just the uber competitive type and playing with trillions of dollars and people’s lives has to have mad appeal.

But the striking thing to me, the thing that I’ve only really started to notice since the advent of social media networking, is how the negativity has saturated down to nearly every voter.

A friend made an innocuous post earlier simply asking if anyone could articulate why she should vote for Romney. She clearly stated that everyone she had previously talked to said they were voting for him because they didn’t want to vote for President Obama. She also asked that no one attack her.

Easy enough. I wanted to get on board because I really wanted to see how the average Mid-western Republican would respond. So I took the feminist route and said I couldn’t give a reason to vote for a ticket that didn’t believe in equal pay or my right to autonomy over my body.

Of course, someone had to jump on and remind me that Romney thinks it’s okay to get an abortion if I were pregnant via rape. I didn’t even try to debate that Ryan’s weird personhood ideas would outlaw some types of birth control, so autonomy is more that choice. But I digress…

The whole mess turned into an Obama hating shitfest. Remember the original question? Sigh. I said to check out some non-partisan sites and BBC News. She’s a smart girl. She’ll figure it out.

But they kept going. Someone even posted a link to website entirely devoted to why Obama should not be elected. Holy fucking balls. I get it. I voted against Bush in ’04. I didn’t vote for Kerry.

Maybe it was the poor grammar. Maybe it was the complete lack of structure in the arguments, as there was nothing articulate or factual in the statements. Maybe I’m still upset about Opie “Sons of Anarchy.” I just don’t get the haters on the President. Sure, I thought Bush was an idiot, a dry drunk, a puppet. But I don’t think I ever hated him the way people seem to hate Obama.

I’m sure there are plenty of ways to opine the whys of it. Racism. Definitely. His cool demeanor. Maybe. Calling him a Marxist, Socialist, insert whatever ist you think it’s the most un-American. But his story is so American. I don’t know. I know for whom I’m voting, so I guess that’s something.

The bitches are definitely Obama voters. I mean, I’m pretty sure Alli is a lesbian and I can see her being involved in equal rights. Both the bitches enjoy the outdoors and were offended by the Republicans laughing about climate change at their convention. I just wish the kibble vote had more pull on the national stage.