josh Allan

Anderson Cooper: one person I would definitely not want to be… at least during this week’s Republican Debate.

Charged with interrupting blabbermouthed politicians who can’t respond to a yes-or-no question in less than 600 words, with attempting to trick mostly crusty narrow wandering minds into actually “answering the question asked” instead of spouting a bunch of polemic partisan bullshit about how much better they are than the person next to them, and with breaking up the testosteristic verbal cockfights… no, poor Anderson Cooper was definitely not one to be envied this week.

And did some of the candidates remind anyone else of hormonal, middle-school-aged boys in $1000 suits?

I consider myself just a little bit more masochistic from even having visually participated in this event, although I must say that I am certainly (slightly) more well-versed on who each of the candidates are — or at least what they look like and who they don’t like.

I can’t imagine taking part in something like these debates — in a way, I can sympathize with the candidates; can you picture trying to answer the complex issues of national security, foreign policy, or the federal defecit in ninety seconds? It’s a bit ludicrious, if you really think about it. It’s almost as crazy, honestly, as some people actually believing they can get enough information about whom our next President should be from such a shoddy, pathetic contest as this.

Did anyone else watch the Republican Debate? If you, like me, lost two hours of your life to this affair, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Are you involved with the presidential campaign yet??

I’ve never been involved or even interested in politics. Actually, to be honest, I’ve always been fairly repulsed by it all. But as I get older — as I understand what it means to pay a third of my income to the government, and as I notice how much the decisions made in Washington affect the entire planet (literally) — I realize that I am involved, whether I like it or not.

I am an American, and sadly, I am not proud to be. When I think about the Europe trip I hope to make this spring, I can’t help but wonder if i should introduce myself as a Canadian, or something. I don’t want to be associated with this empirical regime, but now, I am old enough to know that isn’t an option.

Are you involved? Have you been watching? Are you paying attention?

I’ve only just begun, really, to research and ascertain what I think about the presidential candidates. From the outside, I’ve been very intrigued by a young senator named Barack Obama. He seems fresh and balanced, and Democratic (namely: not Republican). Like, I imagine, a lot of us, I react pretty adversely to the Republican wave going on right now, and thus naturally swing pretty hard to the other side in an attempt to balance the problems.

But I’m not sure Obama’s the best choice anymore.

I urge you, if you, like me, are a person who wants desperately to actually be proud of the country we live in again; if you look into the future and see pretty dire global situations; if you notice the declining state of our economy; if you despise the fact that 50 million Americans don’t have basic health care; if you want America to stop starting wars… check out this man:

Ron Paul.

He’s not getting much love from mainstream media, but I’ll bet I’m not alone when I say that makes me like him even more. In my last blog, I posted a video that is a fantastic introduction to Dr. Paul. Here’s an interview with him that’s also very good: Q&A: Presidential Candidate Ron Paul.

I’m not saying that you and I will agree on everything; in fact, I’m sure we don’t. But I hope you’ll agree that it’s time that we do something to make America a country we can be proud to be from, again.

What happens in 2008 will depend entirely on what we do now.