Me, My Mister and Oktoberfest

So, here I am, passing another night on the couch with the invalid, and being angry at Republicans. Why what brought this bout of anger on, Flooz? It's actually nothing new, just some mental clarification that I achieved on the subway uptown (second only to my shower in terms of where I do my best thinking). This is a bit ranty, but like most rants, it just needs to be freed.

I'm not angry at all Republicans, because I don't think the classic articulation of the party platform is necessarily tied to its current right-wing Bible-thumping incarnation. If anything, you would think that the party which has historically stood for greater government involvement in people's lives would be pushing for this type of "values" agenda. But philosophical coherency aside, it is the selective adherence to values that makes me most disgusted with the current Republican party. When deployed by a usually fat, white, middle-aged Republican official, "values" really just means siding with the radical minority on abortion and gay marriage. Do you have other values? Like honesty, tolerance or perhaps protecting life that already exists (but with regards to the death toll in Iraq, who's counting?)? Maybe your values are governments that aren't plagued with corruption or lawmakers who don't abuse their positions to prey on high school students. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of Americans would voice their support of those values, but the Republicans are concerned only with the values that a vocal and well-funded minority would like to impose on the entirity of American society.

To make matters worse, Democrats have allowed their opponents to create a quasi-monopoly over "values," demonstrating that the true power in discourse is having the opportunity to define language and establish its limitations. Having allowed the Republicans to define values in such a narrow fashion, the Democrats have weakened their ability to stand up for the values shared by Americans across political, demographic and socioeconomic boundaries. On the eve of this election, I am mostly just disenchanted with the state of American politics.

Oy va voily. Anyone have a reason to hope the Democrats can not just win, but actually pull their heads out of their collective ass and do something interesting?