I hate politics.

I'm normally not a very political person. this is mostly due to my cynicism and understanding that my fellow human beings are, more often than not, complete morons. so I try not to care too much, apathy saves me many frustrations and much heartbreak. I still don't know how paul does it. it's like he never saw spaceballs: "evil will always triumph over good, because good is dumb."

I seem to recall being blamed last presidential election, by either paul or toby (possibly both) that I JINXED the election by saying dubya would get reelected. he pulled it off once, he'd likely pull it off again. because I had the cynicism to believe the system would fail, and that either through trickery (ie, karl rove) or stupidity (ie, the south and midwest) the republicans would win a second term, somehow the fact that they pulled it off was MY fault.

so this weekend, we're down in the shitty vancouver, otherwise known as vanloser, visiting my family. and since I'm a bit of an annoying asshole, even to my family, politics have come up a few times.

my family is weird. for the most part, we're a fairly liberal lot. most of my family votes democrat, my dad votes republican out of spite (to "cancel one of us out"), and I generally vote as far left as I can. I was so proud to vote for the gay ex-hippie socialist in 2000, and was actually ashamed that I voted for kerry in 2004 (because paul had me believing that washington would be MUCH closer than it was). I had fully expected to vote for kucinich this go around, knowing full well he'd be long gone by the time I got a shot. I had actually hoped to write in for mrs kucinich 'cos she's hot, but as a brit she's not even eligible.

but in talking to my family, I'm downright frightened. my mom said today she'd be happy to vote for hillary, but if it came down to obama or mccain, she'd have to vote for maccain.

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

when I pressed on this a bit, I found out she doesn't trust obama. she's worried he's secretly a muslim. and secretly a terrorist. and his devious plan is to get into office and then destroy america.

my mom is normally a rational person. this is completely dumbfounding. I'm still in shock.

later on, we went to visit HER mother. in talking to nana, she said much the same thing. she spewed all the typical republican bullshit about how he's a muslim and a terrorist and doesn't salute the flag and was sworn in a koran and all that. it's horseshit. but this is the same place whose county's GOP posted an article outlining all of that shit. and everyone here believed it. nana tells me one of her friends printed something out, and it said right on the printout that it was CONFIRMED by who knows what! I really don't like the fact that my family has gone from rational people to dumbshits who will believe anything they're told, throwing reason out the window for knee-jerk hysteria. the worst part was, when nana said he was secretly a muslim, I asked her why that would even matter if it were true. she equates "muslim" with "terrorist"... she didn't realise there are enarly as many muslims as christians, that most muslims don't want to kill anyone, and that they both worship the same fucking god. again, a normally rational, intelligent, liberal person. what the hell is wrong with this country?

I've since printed off a whole slew of "propaganda" (ie, the truth) dispelling all of this shit, showing what a total douche mccain is, and how hillary in any other election would be considered a conservative... my mom read it, and has at least decided now that if it came down to obama and mccain, she just wouldn't vote. but she still doesn't like obama. I doubt nana will change her mind either. my dad said he'd read it, and told me he's "more open-minded than I give him credit for"... I doubt it. he'll read it, scoff and say it's all bullshit. this is the same guy who refuses to watch an inconvenient truth because it wasn't real. he voted for washington's ridiculous $30 car tabs initiative because he just bought a new truck and didn't want to pay $500 to license it. he doesn't vote for schools because his kids are grown (his grandchildren aren't), doesn't vote for transit because he never takes the bus and doesn't vote for health care because he already has it. he refused to vote for gore OR kerry because he "doesn't like clinton"... he also thinks bill clinton was the worst president ever, despite having witnessed first hand the presidencies of dubya, reagan and nixon. he doesn't actually watch fox news, so I don't know how he comes up with this shit...

this kind of idiocy has me jumping on the obama bandwagon. I know I'll be disappointed. best case scenario, he's jimmy carter version 2.0. he gets to office with dreams and ideals and a plan for a better future, and he's kicked out four years later having accomplished nothing. worst case scenario? he gets into office, some asshole assassinates him and we really do end up with obamelot, and he goes down in history next to JFK as a great american martyr, having accomplished little and leaving us all with a tainted view of the past, wondering what might have been.

somewhere in between those two is hillary winning, 'cos I really gotta believe that losing an election isn't nearly as abd as losing your life. hell, even mccain winning is probably better than a martyred obama. I just REALLY hope he's got good security. and a good bulletproof vest. too many fuckos out there have too many reasons to hate him. he's black. his dad's a muslim. they think HE'S a muslim. he wants to change the system. he's liberal.

I'm really disappointed in my family. and I'm beginning to agree with miyuki that it's horrible to come down here to visit... we really don't belong here.