Smack-Down

I work with someone who is a Republican from the word go.

If Barrack Obama were the GOP nominee, I guarantee you she'd vote for him and she wouldn't blink, wouldn't think twice. I don't think, outside of work, she personally knows anyone who is not also a fairly conservative Republican. And on a deeper level, I think the idea of actually thinking about it strikes her as something only a real dork would do.

She seemed shocked today. In fact, a few weeks back when I said I thought it was fairly obvious that Obama was going to win in a landslide, she said 'I don't see it.' She said it like I'd suggested Bob Barr was going to win it.

And it made me doubt my own judgment of people. Everyone thinks everyone else thinks like they do, including me, so maybe I was out of touch. I know how many houses I own, and I know what the Bush Doctrine is, but I don't have my finger on the pulse of much of anything.

And today, she asked how my guy did. The paper I saw, about 350,000 votes. Not enough to be impressive in a state, and this was for the whole country. Ed Clark did triple that in a race with much, much lower turnout.

So why would I throw my vote away? Well, to me, throwing it away would be voting for the status-quo, and that means either McCain or Obama. No real reason to ponder which, toss a coin. Neither one of them wants to change anything that matters.

It's like professional wrestling: they have to pretend to fight or there's no show. The consultants and ad agencies, the TV networks and newspapers, they get nothing. They have to cook up another bogus contest like American Idol or a 'reality' TV show where people go to a tropical vacation spot without credit cards and play Gilligan's Island.

And in the midst of this WWF deal, there may be some genuine animosity between The Executioner and Stone Cold or whatever, but it's all a show.

Then come some Greco-Roman wrestlers, some Olympic wannabes who heard there was wrestling and they want to get in the ring.

And they whine about how it's not fair, and how in real wresting there's no such thing as Tag-Team Texas Twister.

That's us third party guys. Ralph Nader and his terrible ideas, the Libertarians and our good ones, we're a bunch of gate-crashing nerds who don't get the joke. We actually think there should be some sort of substantial difference if he election comes out one way or another. We're pitiful, but we believe in something and we can't help it.