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I pride myself on my political cynicism. In the last two presidential elections, I voted for myself. Seriously, write in vote: Lee Brown for President.
I got three votes in 2000, two friends' and mine. With a little more campaigning I think I could have been a contender.
Whenever I vote in local elections, I just vote against the incumbent. Republican, Democrat, it makes no difference. I always vote for any third party or independent candidate I can find on any ballot just because I want them to get a little extra support.
I never even care what they actually stand for.
I consider it a product of political fatigue. I'm at the tail end of generation x. We're commonly described as the most cynical generation alive today. We're impossible to advertise to and we have an inherent distrust of authority.
I've always taken pride in that characterization, and I do my best to live up to it. This overarching urge to be cynical - perhaps even when it's not necessarily necessary -always goes double concerning politicians.
So please understand me when I tell you that as much as I want to, I have a hard time applying that cynicism to who I think may be the first candidate I'll actually vote for since I supported Ross Perot in a mock election when I was in elementary school: Barack Obama.
If you're disappointed in me, believe me, I'm just as sick about it. I get in shouting matches with my television during any state of the Union address - although I will admit those shouting matches were unusually violent during the last eight years - because I've never enjoyed the feeling of having smoke blown up my hindquarters.
I miss Bill Clinton, but only because I really liked his style. His substance I could care less about, but the man had flavor. He had panache. He was like the cool uncle you had when you were a kid who would give you a beer when your mom wasn't looking.
But I never cared about his politics. I wouldn't vote for him - not that I could have, I didn't turn 18 until 1998.
As for President Bush, well, let's just say he redefined the upper limit on my B.S. meter and leave it at that. He buried the needle, if you will. If his B.S. were radiation, and my B.S. detector a Geiger counter, I would go mad from the sheer volume of the clicking noises long before I succumbed to radiation sickness.
Seriously. He lied a lot.
So I find myself frankly disturbed by the fact that I'm willing to vote for Obama. Although I'll admit, the 'ole needle does still twitch when he speaks.
For instance, no matter how many times he or Senator Clinton may insist on it, I just can't buy the notion that universal health care will ever work in the United States. I don't see how it could be funded, I don't see how it could be managed and I just don't believe it can ever be done.
For that matter, I've never heard either one of them adequately explain the particulars of that little trick, either.
Obama's ideas concerning student aid are sound, though. The notion of giving students grants in exchange for community service is particularly strong - especially considering the difficulties many students may face in finding employment that is flexible enough to allow them to go to school.
I'm willing to entertain the notion that my supporting him is just part of my natural desire to be contrary. He looks, speaks and acts differently from pretty much every man that's ever held the office of President, and perhaps on some deep, subconscious level, that's enough for me.
What it says about Obama though, that he can cut through a thick layer of cynicism that was weaned on Nirvana and The Simpsons, that is old enough to chart the course of the advertising blitz that got worse and worse throughout the 1980's and eventually came back around to try and sell me my childhood all over again with CG versions of the toys I played with when I was a kid, that hates - with great vengeance and furious anger - the oxymoronic lie that is reality TV, I just can't say.
It either says he's something special, or I'm a total sucker. The conclusion to that one I leave up to you, gentle reader.
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