Briers Wellies
The presidential electoral process in the U.S. is now in full swing and will be over in a little less than six weeks, finally; although, it’s debatable whether or not that’s a good thing.
What’s left—or right—now, besides the remaining campaigning, stories in newsprint and rag magazines, ramblings on the Internet, television and radio commercials, more possible hacking into somebody’s e-mail account, are the highly rated spectacles of the presidential, and vice-presidential debates.
Someone on Social Media called them “debacles,” which seems spot-on for the one I saw the other night.
I watched it live on Twitter, which was a trip in itself. The debate’s coverage beforehand was hosted by a wisecracking journalist from one of the international business-news networks. The announcer’s obvious slights for one of the candidates revealed immediately whom they were rooting for. Their presentation was as if the news syndicate was treating it like a side show. So much for ethics and media partiality.
Seeing the vitriolic tweets sparred by tweeters from both political corners made the debacle that much more impressive in real time.
What’s most disturbing to me, however, is the continual usage by posters of those lame .GIFs, meant to portray the author of the tweet’s personal emotions or thoughts on the subject, individuals who are incapable of expressing themselves cohesively, constructively, or coherently on their own in 140 characters. Speak for yourselves, for goodness sake; and stop using the constantly repeating, annoying visual silliness.
Sorry for being condescending and old-fashioned. I can’t help myself. My mind was made up anyway, well ahead of time. No, I’m not saying who will be receiving my vote, for fear of losing all my attaboys, the few that are left. Also, one’s opinions about political leanings should be kept to themselves, like somebody’s religion, both personal items that need not be publicized.
The preshow dialogue portrayed the forthcoming debate like that of a football game, boxing match, Roman-gladiator contest; or any other sporting event, complete with what the players needed to do for winning and wiping out their opponent.
On Twitter with all their armchair politicians and hatemongers, posters were adamant about who would come out on top at the end of the illustrious forum, and that goes for either candidate’s supporters, both of whom declared their favorites as the winner once the smoke had cleared.
They say that love is blind.
Am I going to move out of the country, should one or the other get elected President of the United States? Nay! I have full confidence in our constitution. Enough checks and balances were written in to neutralize any direct or indirect threat to our freedom.
The problem is that those checks and balances provide substantial roadblocks, in many cases, for progress to be made in any given situation: the yin and yang of a democratic republic.
In our case, a third branch is attached to the constitutional tree, that being the gang at the Supreme Court, which, incidentally, is still missing a member, jepordizing that critical, constitutional balance, or tiebreaker. Unfortunately for justice, partisan politics is waiting for the result of this election to replace the vacant seat.
While the election scenario brews on the national scene, Congress had just two days left to avoid another wasteful, government shutdown. Remember Ted Cruz’s filibuster and the shutdown of 2013?
The good news is House and Senate leaders appeared to have reached a deal, with the House expected to sign off on the financial budget with an impending vote to ratify the agreement.
At least one thing has been settled, but I’m still waiting for the House’s vote to be certain.
Speaking of voting, it’s every American’s right to pick the candidate of their choice. Please exercise your right this coming November 8th. Your vote does count. Don’t waste the opportunity.
Lastly, allow me to present my latest Cover Your Ears. Remember, you don’t have to listen to it, but I would appreciate it if you do. I’m still far from being a rock star, although, I think I’m making progress.
Thanks for reading and for your continued support.
