Homer's Travels: The Forces Of DUH

Sunday, January 31, 2016

The Forces Of DUH

WARNING: I've been posting on Homer's Travels for nearly nine and a half years now and I have successfully stayed away from posting about politics. In those nine plus years I have posted eleven times about politics and six of those were posts asking people to get out and vote. I apologize in advance for the rant that follows.

I have re-immersed myself into the twenty-four hour news cycle. In other words I am up to my eyeballs in politics. If this election weren't for the Presidency of the United States of America, I would be enjoying every hilarious minute of it.

This election cycle, though, is different. I watch the news with a sinking sense of impending doom but I can't turn my eyes away ... much like a train wreck. Disappointment, depression, disbelief, and embarrassment - I have never truly experienced these feelings with respect to our elections until now. What must the people around the world think of us, the "Leaders of the Free World"? T@#$p, C@#z ... Really? B@#$%e, H@#$%^y ... that's the best we have?

All candidates are human. I know that. All humans have flaws. The trick with our elections has always been to pick the candidate with the fewest flaws and the most potential. All of these candidates ... all of them ... have more flaws than potential in my opinion.

Will any of these yahoos be able to make a difference? Will any of them be able to make a positive change? One party seems dead set for reversing the meager progress that has been made in the past ten to twenty years. At the same time their own candidates are disliked by many of their own party. The other party would try to build on the progress made but would find itself fighting the same forces of DUH that is opposing the current President.

How will it all change? Will the undercurrent of racism be exchanged for sexism or anti-semitism? Will partisanship expand while empathy fades from existence? Will we have more anti-intellectualism? More dismissal of science? Will another four years be wasted fighting the forces of DUH?

Eight years ago I had guarded hope. Who would have thunk I had too much hope and wasn't guarded enough? The process of electing our next President begins tomorrow. I'm not a religious man but all I can think is 'Lord help us all'.