Take The City And Run

Go out and vote, especially if you’re in a swing state. There’s a lot riding on this election. Unfortunately, in New York, we’re left with few real choices. Pataki will win another term as governor… there’s no chance of anything else thanks to a businessman who spent millions upon millions of his own dollars to not get elected. Of course, McCall never seemed to get his campaign into gear anyway. Not like it matters. None of the candidates are very impressive. There’s an incumbent who seems to actively avoid defining any vision for the future (and who even knows if he’ll finish his third term), an opposition party challenger with no support from his party, and some third party candidate who seems to be in the race only to indulge a power trip in which he can manipulate the media and piss off the public. Great.

Meanwhile, we’ve all looked on as the Republicans and Democrats have thrown money at states with close Senate and House races; turf wars involving family (Florida) and death (Minnesota) have turned our political system into little more than an auction for policital power where the amount of money and sympathetic grief in a party’s war chest become the deciding factors in who runs the country. God forbid we find out a candidate’s true opinions and beliefs… oh, yeah, they don’t really have any, do they? Thank god campaign finance reform laws kick in after this election (we’ll have to wait and see if they actually amount to anything).

I apologize if I’m coming on a little strong… I know it’s usually more or less just photos here with a minimum of ranting– at least that’s what I try for. It just pisses me off. This may sound corny, but as a kid, I actually looked forward to being old enough to vote, but every election I’ve thus far voted in has been a major disappointment. I don’t feel as if I’m represented by either of the two major parties; at least the third parties are willing to tell you what they really truly believe even if most of them are lame jokes with candidates that seem like bad punchlines. Our generation is too often labelled “apathetic.” Sometimes that’s clearly the case, but with choices like the ones we’re often given, what can you expect? And no, I’m not saying this is a reason not to go out to the polls and vote. We still have to make due with what we have and choosing the lesser of two evils is better than letting the worse choice go unopposed.