I was feeling burned out and meh about politics. I felt like anything I said here wasn’t going to matter one microbe to anybody. If I had my way, I was just going to blog about comics, blu rays, and stuff like that. After all, when it comes down to it, this blog is ultimately about keeping me interested (BTW, thanks to Gordon Dymowski and Alan David Doane for the comments left. See, I don’t ask for much. Just a sign somebody’s reading this thing)  I was content to leave politics alone.
And then came the news that Romney selected Ryan as his running mate.  Goes to show how fast things move on these internet tubes. It’s only Saturday, and the announcement was made this morning, but it took some digging to find a link to the original story, before both sides dug in.
Where to begin? How about Ryan being such a believer of Ayn Rand. Yes, you got me. Most of what I know about Rand is that Spider-Man creator Steve Ditko is another devotee (which is reflected in a lot of his work) and that another devotee tried to keep Maggie Simpson away from her pacifier on The Simpsons. But I’ve read up on the philosophy, and I think there is a world of difference between giving hand outs to undeserving and ungrateful people, and a hand to those who need it. As the old PSAs said, they’re not asking for a hand out just a hand, and all they ever wanted was a chance. I don’t believe that people who need help want to sponge off of the able-bodied workers. Have you ever been to a welfare office? Okay, neither have I, but it’s hardly the Monty Hall giveaway some would lead you to believe. Anybody applying for welfare or food stamps realize how frustrating it is, jumping through all the hoops, and figure getting a job is easier. Problem is, those who need this help can’t get a job. And that’s before you factor in the deck being stacked against them. The other day I posted about the Civilian Conservation Corps over at Hey, Martha! which was a jobs program set up during the Great Depression. I read a lot about how there were so many abandoned houses due to the housing meltdown and so many homeless, and you factor in the unemployed and the fact that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to fix things in this country, I bet that if they launched a similar program today, how many people who are homeless, facing foreclosure, or unemployed would sign up? I’ll bet a lot more than those “on the dole” who would yawn and pass it up, wanting their free lunch, as those on the Right would claim would be the response. Maybe even add in the so-called undocumented workers who are supposedly getting all of this good stuff for free? I would also wager they would jump at the chance to earn citizenship in this great country, not just here for the free stuff (another right wing claim).
And then you factor in Ryan’s voting record on women’s rights. Last I checked, there were more women than men in this country. Could somebody point out why our representatives are mostly white guys?
But what spurred me to write this post was ComicMix pointing out a post they did last year pointing out the similarities between Ryan and “The Smiler”, a politician from the DC Comic Transmetropolitan. But they know there’s a difference: as they pointed out themselves, “One of these individuals has good looks and a certain amount of charisma, but has no empathy for the lower classes of society. He has designs on the presidency, and will cut odious political deals to make that happen, all while being fawned over by right wing pundits and a segment of the voters who are convinced that he will save us from ‘the Beast’.
“The other, of course, is a character out of the comic books.”
And the fix is in, brothers and sisters. How are the Repugnicans going to win the election? The same way they did last time. By cheating. You’ve no doubt read about the voter fraud laws that as Jon Stewart pointed out are like leash laws for unicorns, that what a coinkydink affect those that tend to vote Democrat. And Ohio is in their sites again, this time curtailing hours in the districts with high Democrat votes while expanding the hours in the Republican districts.
Getting back to political discourse not changing anybody’s opinion a microbe, if there’s only one thing you take away from all this, let it be this: ultimately the election will be decided by people like you going to vote. Yes, you will be bombarded with messages from groups that basically say “_______ is the greatest menace out there, and we’re fighting to stop it, and we need some money to do so”, but after all the campaigning and commericals, in the end, it will be you going into the voting booth and casting your vote. All the money spent won’t matter at bit. And no matter how you vote, make sure your vote is counted the way you voted. I don’t want my side’s votes counted, I want all the votes counted.