Election year blues (again)

This will be a rant, so please, if you’re not into that sort of thing, thanks for stopping by, and have a nice day. On the other hand, I’ve always thought I was pretty good as far as ranters go. Definitely above average, and hell, if I get worked up enough to start swearing, lookout!

Okay, so I read “news” articles about the election constantly. I probably waste an hour a day reading about these dumb primaries, which I’ve publicly stated should be replaced by a brief (8 weeks tops) reality-style television show, even though I accepted long ago that there was so little content in these articles that if they were food I would have died of malnutrition long ago. After reading all these empty words, I came to a realization: if you get paid to write about “election news”, then you have to write something, even if there’s nothing there. So they write about nothing.

Let’s go back to the beginning, last November or October, and imagine a conversation between a journalist and his editor:

J: Damn, Hillary Clinton finally announced she’s running. I don’t know who any of these other candidates are, so let’s call her the front-runner.

Ed: Yes! She’s got this shit locked up!

A month or so goes by.

J: Dude, I’m getting tired of writing about Hillary Clinton. Let’s write about how some of the other candidates are serious competition.

Ed: Fuck yeah! Some competition! Suspense, drama, this rocks!

A month or so goes by.

J: Yee-haw! We got ourselves a horse race now!

Ed: Let’s root for the black guy, he’s hot!

And on and on. Yeah, I’m cynical, but it seems pretty obvious that all this election drama is manufactured drama. No one’s gonna read about a boring campaign. It really is just like America’s Next Top Model, where they edit out the boring bits and only show the fights. Is it a realistic depiction of anything. No. Is it good tv? No, not really. Will people watch it? Hell yeah, they’ll swallow it like Larry Craig in a bus stop toilet.

I’m sick of it. I remember reading about how Obama might do well in South Carolina because it has a large black population. A couple days later, Bill Clinton briefly mentions the same thing, and everyone jumps on him for it. “How dare he suggest that race might come into people’s decision! Why I’ve never! It’s scandalous!” And suddenly they have a whole couple days to write about how horribly racist Bill Clinton is, and how his racism was dooming Hillary’s campaign. Sweet, thinks Mr. Random Journalist, something to write about!

Couldn’t we instead talk about how most people have many different reasons behind their decisions? Reasons they’re not often fully aware of? And sometimes these reasons aren’t nice and logical, but might even be shameful?

I am sick of it, sick of it, sick of it. I hate political news.