Who Wears Lipstick - Pit Bulls or Pigs?

This week, Obama's lapse was this: "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig."

And the media and the McCain campaign have taken the ammunition and run with it. Just this afternoon, I heard reports that not only has Barack Obama used the phrase before (long before Sarah Palin was inserted into the National consciousness), but John McCain has been known to use it as well. It is one of those American homegrown phrases that almost everyone has used at one time or another. I have heard it far more often myself than I have heard the "difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom" joke. Good Lord, People! It's not like Obama said, "You can put lipstick on a pig like Sarah Palin, but she's still a pig." Yet that is exactly how everyone is acting. It's truly pathetic and embarrassing, but such is politics the world over, (just more so here in America).

There are four types of Americans participating in this election:

There are the vast majority by far, who are the "normal" people who listened to the original issues being discussed by the candidates, researched what history could be known, and decided who represented their own ideals the best. First impressions are usually the right ones. These people decided their vote a long time ago.

Then there are the people who are fanatics, actual fans of politics. They're the ones amongst who are some that dress up in outlandish outfits and go to all the rallies and end up at the Convention. They make signs at home and at Events. They plant these same signs in their front yards. They belong to a "club", this is their "hobby" and they are likened to "groupies" in this writer's mind. These people probably made their minds up pretty early in the game also, since you have to choose a side in order to make your costume. A lot of these people inherited their political affiliations from their parents.

Then there are the people who can't decide what socks to wear from day to day, can't decide what to eat, can't decide where to go, and can't decide what and when to decide. These people live to be in a constant state of indecision, and they relish every agonizing moment that leads them to their eventual excruciating decision. These people will decide in the week before the election. Or at the voting booth. Or they will have to stay home in bed on Election Day for lack of a decision.

Then there are the people who think they are not participating, those who proudly proclaim, "I DON'T VOTE!" What these fools don't realize is that their voice is heard loud and clear on Election Day, throughout all of Creation. They participate through their apathetic refusal to participate. And some years, in some venues, they can be the majority. They fool no one but themselves. But they harm all of us by remaining ignorant and ineffective.

The thing is, only the political diehards (the groupies) are still attending the rallies, and only the news freaks like me are still paying attention to the media coverage, at this point in the campaign game. We have been watching and listening for 2 years, now. We know pretty much all we need to know in order to make a decision. The people who are paying attention to any of this campaign crudity at this point are the same people who must watch Jerry Springer and Cheaters every single day, who TIVO it if they aren't going to be home. They're in it for the thrills, not for the important matters at hand that need to be considered and decided. They're all poised for the next bit of dirt to hit the airwaves, because that's what's exciting to them.

The rest of us (MOST of us), well we know that this part of the campaigning is all about nothing. Everyone has already said everything they're ever going to say, anything that's true, anyway. Now almost everything that's being said is going to be a spin, a change to appease, something that isn't related, or something to create a reaction from the other side. If anything, those of us who were smart or passionate enough to make our decision fairly early on are watching this out the corner of our eye just to SEE those reactions, because sometimes those can say a lot about a person. But that's all we're getting out of it by now. Most of us are bored with the process by this point. Most of us are sick and tired of listening to it now. And most of us have no time or interest in all this nothing.

So, there is this far lesser percentage of the voting and not-voting population which is still engaged in the process (or, more precisely, the show that's being put on), and they are most likely going to a) make the wrong decision based on appearances and sound bites or b) not make any decision at all. What that means is that the functional part of this process has already reached the end of that process, and none of the rest of these performances means anything to the thinking person. Now it's all a competition between the candidates to see how stupid they can be or how stupid they can keep from being. And those of us who aren't stupid are no longer participating.

Don't they know that?

Obama is going to say dumb things. McCain is going to say (more) dumb things. Are we going to continue to be dumb and say dumb things about the dumb things they're saying? When will we, as a group of thinking individuals, grow up and become wise? Paying attention at this point, and allowing it to encourage or discourage our thought process one way or the other is like choosing the class president based on who won the fight after school yesterday. Pay attention to what's being said about what really matters in our daily lives. Who's pregnant, who's got how many houses, who's more popular, who's more black or more white, who's Christian or not (and where does it say that the President has to be Christian?) or too Christian, whose wife (or husband) wears the best clothes, who has the best hobbies, who has the better sex life or no sex life without assistance, who's too sexy, too fit, too old, none of that actually matters.

So, to all those thinking individuals out there, I beg that you refrain from listening anymore. This part of the campaigning is designed to confuse. Only those who choose confusion will find it. Let's make a choice to be clear about what service we are performing by participating in this process, and be the good stewards we should be, by no longer giving an ear to the overall silliness at this point in the game. If less people buy into the hype, perhaps we'll see a return to the issues, and more intelligent discourse than whether pit bulls or pigs wear lipstick.