The Great Debate

I watched the vice presidential debate last night, and I must say that Governor Palin did much better than I expected. Granted her success was mainly due to the fact that she avoided answering a lot of the questions, but not answering is better than just rambling incoherently. That’s my job.

After listening to a presidential and vice presidential debate I think it is now appropriate to point out what I’ve learned.

Each candidate is completely full of shit:

I don’t know why I expected anything else. I’m not saying these are bad people. It is obvious though that our system is set up such that it is impossible to get elected by telling the truth.

People have short memories:

I’m not that old. I have followed presidential politics since around 1992, which isn’t a long time. I have decided that in 2020 we will still be hearing about how the candidates running have a plan for energy independence, balancing the budget, combating global warming, and reforming healthcare. No one will actually do it, but we will get to hear about it every four years.

Ideology is more important than individuals:

Most people vote for an ideology rather than a candidate. Capitalism, socialism, welfare, abortion, gay marriage etc, dominate the issues discussed. Instead of finding someone who is intelligent, thoughtful, and prudent we find people who fit into our predetermined ideologies.

It doesn’t matter all that much who wins:

I know it’s easy to convince yourself otherwise, but things won’t be all that different no matter who becomes president. For all the fighting and rhetoric neither guy would do much differently. Until our society changes we will have pretty much the same government we have today.