Central Scrutinizer

Hi, it’s me, I’m back. But I don’t know for how long. I’ve become progressively obsessed with this election. Dangerously obsessed, in the cult mind-set, can’t see straight sort of belief. Truth is, I can get addicted to anything. The stakes are so high in this election--life and death, a battle between blind-religious and rational thinking, the possibility of an actual apocalypse. I’m not going overboard here--the Suskind piece in the NY Times yesterday talks about everything regarding Bush’s faith except the obvious--his belief in the inevitability of the Rapture and the Second Coming.

I’m getting off topic. So much is riding on this election that it has overtaken my mind. Nothing much matters to me. I can’t work, all I want to do is read political stories. If I see a pro-Bush piece I search for a positive Kerry article to balance it. Oh, that feels good, a little jolt of optimism, I want some more of that. And so on. I’m a nut.

So I have neglected this blog. I have really neglected the American Book. I am partly interested in seeing how this election turns out. I think the sky is going to fucking clear when Bush is elected out. I read somewhere that the Bush Presidency is like a bad relationship--we won’t know just how bad we had it until it’s over. Fear hangs over everything like weather. I’m of the belief that half of the terror alerts are bullshit, so if Kerry gets into office, the terror alerts won’t be necessary. He is going to discover a war on terror campaign that may seem like it’s intentionally mismanaged.

I read pro-Bush articles in which people say Kerry will be defensive on the War on Terror, Bush will be offensive. These arguments aggravate me so. Number 1. Bush has been on the offensive and look where it’s gotten us. He has mismanaged it so far--what makes a Bushite think that he will do better in the future? Number 2. Bush is so maligned in the world that nobody is going to jump to our side if we do need to preemptively strike again. Number 3. Less importantly, Bush has terrorized the country himself by pumping us full of fear of the enemy. Being that fear of terrorism is basically all that Bush has in his corner, these points are important. Kerry will defend the country against terrorism because he has to.

All right, I thought I could purge some of my political bent by writing a non-partisan blog entry. I can’t. I want this election to happen already so I can move on. I think Kerry’s going to win due to incredibly high voter turnout numbers--people who are not now being counted in the polls--young people, minorities, cell phone users, the anti-Bush sentiment is huge, even with Republicans, etc. Still, I find following this election fun and satisfying. This is the reason people follow religion--a belief in something much larger than themselves. This election seems much deeper than Democratic vs. Republican: it’s spiritual, intellectual, moral as well. The election of one of these two men is going to drastically change the culture and emotion of the world. I can’t stay away from it.