Monday, January 14, 2008
Ennui
I have been a little surprised at my lack of impulse to post as of late. I guess it happens.After the serial deceptions and abuses of the Bush Administration, I'm more than a little chagrined at my lack of interest in the Democratic primaries. I have been at a distance from the candidates, even as they worked the corridors of the state next door. Obama, Edwards, both Clintons have been right next door. Everybody assembled at Dartmouth for one of the debates, though I had to work that night. I didn't attend a single rally, not for anyone.
We don't have TV, and for me that's a blessing 99 per cent of the time. We're spared the campaign ads, which always manage to disgust me. I could have caught the debates on the radio, I know.
I became turned off to debates a while ago when no less than Al Gore debated Ross Perot on NAFTA. I had a long drive that night and listened to the whole shootin' match, and let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. It wasn't even much about NAFTA. It was mostly about weaseling around whatever point and then stepping back with a big aha! Subsequent debates have usually been similarly lacking in substance.
To compensate, I've been listening to Obama's The Audacity of Hope on CD, where I learn that Obama's take on history is pretty much like my own, although he appreciates free markets more than I do. I'm only halfway through, but listening to him puts me a little more in contact with what's going on out there.
Vermont's primary isn't till March, and we send our bitty proportion of delegates to conventions, followed by our three, count 'em three, electoral votes to the Big Show. I miss the big block of votes, and the involvement and the clout, of my former, Golden, state. Something about our tininess is great on the local level, but strips me of zeal for the larger contests.
This week I travel to California to see a most treasured pal, the better to keep the friendship alive and well while catching some negative ions in the ocean air and catching up on what the locals are thinking about the current state of things. I was long gone when Hollywood invaded the state capital once again and plunked Arnold in the governor's chair. She and I will probably hike and talk, one of our two best ways of bonding (the other being cruising around in her car, doing our California chicks with attitude thing), and I'm sure looking forward to the conversations.
So more from California, from Santa Cruz, my long-lost adopted home town. The Land-of-as-Good-as-It-Gets.
I wonder if zeal can be borrowed, checked out like a library book, through November of 2008.
# posted by Lulu Maude @ 8:00 AM 
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Hey~ One has to pace ones self when it comes to election years. Because the primaries were bumped up earlier, it made all the rhetoric & hooplah kick in earlier.
Have fun on the left coast!
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Have fun on the left coast!
# posted by 
: 12:16 AM
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