more of d same

I guess I'm too old to be disappointed by presidential elections any more, but I'm still angry as hell.

We've learned to expect the Republicans to be a bunch of nut cases, rageaholics, warmongers, religious fanatics, and apologists for capitalist pirates and blue-blooded aristocrats. That's never a surprise, and it's just the same old big, big deal.

But the naive and gullible American public is fooled one election after another, and continually disappointed to discover that the Democrats they thought were so wonderful are just a bunch of bimbos. Our wide-eyed innocence is perpetually taken advantage of by candidates who run campaigns exactly like the current one -- an exercise in feel-goodism, in which cynical establishment operatives manipulate us with pollyanna platitudes and glittering generalizations.

Things did change a little this year, and one candidate appeared willing to talk about the fact that since 1980 the United States has become a society composed of a tiny enclave of haves sitting atop, and on the backs of, a population of debtors. [The numbers prove it (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit … §ion=4), so don't even bother telling me it ain't so.] He's losing, by the way.

No candidate is willing to bring up the fact that this country is dying under the weight of an empire and a military establishment more massive than anything the world has ever seen, capable of both casual violence and murderous, rage-driven wars of acquistion in which we drop cluster bombs on little kids. Economically, this war machine is bleeding us dry, but on this subject our vaunted "liberal" Democrats remain as silent as a row of cathedrals.

Instead of honest assessments of these and other life-threatening issues, the Democrats give us silly personality spats and feel-good, mealy-mouthed nonsense about "change" and "hope." To hell with them.

I'm appalled by the ease with which many of my fellow posters are taken in by this cynical twaddle. You're good, loving, well-meaning people, and I love the hell out of you, but most of the liberals I see here have a few things to learn about what actually drives the political process in this country. And here's a clue: it's not idealism.