The second presidential debate is on tonight but I don’t know yet if I will watch it. I just don’t know how much more of this garbage I can take – the economy is tanking, my retirement money is flushing down the tubes, prices are up, homes are being foreclosed, jobs are unstable, stress levels are through the roof – and the presidential campaign is getting nasty, with 4 weeks to go.
I WANT THEM TO TALK ABOUT THE THINGS THAT REALLY MATTER.
Not about people they each knew 20 years ago. Not about being a POW. Not name-calling and mud-slinging, defaming and undercutting each other. They all care about this country or they wouldn’t have put themselves through the wringer of public scrutiny.
Obama and McCain have plans to take us forward out of this mess, directions and goals for the next four years. They are radically different in some ways, similar in others. They have different styles, different priorities, different styles. But the more time they spend throwing mud at each other, the more they cover themselves with it.
We need better than that. We need integrity and to be treated with respect. People are hurting, people are scared. Desperate people who deserve to be told what each candidate would really do, how they are different from the other one and from the idiot government we have now. If you’re so good that we should vote for you, then you should be able to sell yourself without trashing the other person.
After all, when this is all over, I expect to see the government people work together to actually FIX things. It will take lots of people in all areas and levels of government to pull us out of this morass. The more you are angry and defaming the other side, the harder it will be to do that.
AND THIS IS DRIVING ME CRAZY.
It hurts my head and my heart to watch the news now. And that reminds me of just after 9/11, when we all were both obsessed and traumatized by getting too much information. We needed more more more even though what we heard was repetition of the same analysis and commentary. But I had a very hard time pulling away from it then, and from the Katrina coverage, and now from this. I want to know but I don’t want to be continually bombarded by failed banks, stock market failures, angry politicians, and Sarah Palin. I want her off my radar except when portrayed by Tina Fey on SNL.
Make it stop. My head hurts. It’s going to be a long few years; don’t make it worse now.
Random Thoughts of a Disordered Mind 