Wrote this last night...

Ok, in today’s blog entry, I’m not going to comment much on Cape Verde. Instead, I am going to vent on America. American politics in particular. But first I’d like to mention that I just reshaved my head and it is fuzzy and pleasant. Also, there is a dog in our neighborhood who has decided to start barking all night, inspiring the whole local gang to join in. Would I be a bad person to big rocks at somebody else’s pet? Anyway. Since coming here to Boa Vista, I’ve taken up the habit of spending some time every day reading the newspaper. No no, I’m not having the New York Times delivered here, though if any wealthy readers of my blog would like to arrange to have it sent to me, I will love you/marry you/give sexual favors. But I read the Times and the Washington Post online for a while. Partly it is because I am a hopeless politics nerd (among my other nerdisms), but also because if I didn’t do so, I would probably not even notice World War 3 happening. We’re that isolated. But enough on that.

So this may sound cheesy, but one of the things that is so important to America and the developed world at large is democracy. We don’t really think about it much, and a depressing number of people don’t even vote (note: I have not missed a single election since turning 18. Not even state and local ones. Yeah, I care that much. Ok, fine so I may have missed a school board election or two. Shut up.) But the point is that we have the luxury to pick and choose candidates based on our infinitely picky standards and personal opinions. We have the choice to choose between multiple people representing different ideologies. Want tax cuts? You’ve got your man. Against the war in Iraq? So is this guy. What I never thought about until recently is that a lot of places don’t have these choices. This may seem obvious, and perhaps people more aware than I made this realization before the age of 23. And I don’t mean just knowing it, because it is an obvious fact, but I mean really thinking closely about it. But a lot of other countries (my current residence being a fortunate exception) either do not have the choice, because they do not have a democracy, or they have the choice between someone corrupt and someone who is not, or at least is acceptably so, which isn’t really a choice at all. You don’t get to pick ideologies. You just get to pick someone who won’t starve you, kill you, or squander your money.

So here is where current American politics comes in. For the first time in my admittedly short life, many districts are facing a different choice than usual. I’m going to go ahead and target Republicans here, because they have made it so damned easy lately. The corruption rampant in the GOP has surfaced in so many places recently as to be unbelievable. It is something that I have always been aware of, and that most well-read people have probably also been aware of. But it until recently has not been something criminal, provable, and public. I won’t pick on Foley here; he’s fucked. Everyone left and right of the aisle can write him off as a creepy pedophile. But the House leadership that cared more about damage control than his behavior is blameworthy. Bob Ney admitted to selling influence to lobbyists as part of the Abramoff scandal; who knows how many more will be implicated, or worse, escape unharmed or unnoticed. Then this new lobbying scandal investigation involving this other guy (can’t remember his name right now – Wolder?), who is accused of heavily helping out a sketchy Russian oil and gas company who was on his daughter’s firm’s payroll. I can’t say whether he is guilty of anything illegal or not, but it still makes him an asshole in my book.

So the point is this: next month’s elections are no longer about whose politics you side with. For the first time since I have been politically aware, the vote is about driving out the corrupt, the disgusting, the bought-and-paid-for. It is something wholly incredible and inimical to the American spirit, or at least what I desperately hope/wish the American spirit is. It is something reminiscent of the third world. Of course they’re not killing people or holding indomitable military power. But the corrupt control more than most of us can imagine, and it’s killing the country. There is no choice right now in many parts of the country. It’s not about who supports gay marriage or medical marijuana. It’s only about a citizen’s attempt to drive out a culture of corruption and influence peddling that pervades the current government. We’re finally at the point where our democratic choice is only vaguely a choice.

I know, the Democrats aren’t wholly innocent. I understand that the same mentality pervades part of my party, too. And I know that a right winger would invoke Harry Reid’s name here, but if you go ahead and read the details of his story, you will notice that his infraction was quite minor, and actually rather silly. All he did is neglect to declare a change in property ownership from personal to a corporate half owned by a friend. He has apologized and agreed to enter his oversight into his financial declarations. Nonetheless, I am sure that there are some jerks out in the Democratic party as well. But in no way, shape, or form does it even begin to approach the awesome level of corruption in the Republican party. I could go on for pages about it here, but this blog is supposed to be about my experience in Africa, not my American political opinions. Nonetheless, I had to get it out there. But whatever I think, get out there and VOTE on the 7th. Please. I don’t give a damn who you vote for (well, I have a preference). Just do your part.

I should also note that times like this are probably the major reason why I have abandoned previous thoughts of a US political career. Those of you who knew me in high school might remember me telling you that I had every intention of running for Congress one day. Sorry, I’m reneging on that. I just can’t get myself involved in this system. So instead I’ll be wandering the globe, working for international organizations, and having a much better time.

Ok I’m done now.