The Lesser Of Two Evils, Again

I’ve decided to knuckle under and vote for the Democrats on Tuesday. Straight down the line. It’s not an inspired choice, but when was the last time you felt inspired by anything? You should be used to disillusionment by now. It’s as American as apple pie and war. I’ll go to the polling station with the same level of enthusiasm I experience when buying a roll of toilet paper and leave in a cloud of guilty shame, as if I’m exiting a porno theater. I’ll hide my face from respectable humanity, toss that silly “I Voted” sticker into the nearest trash can, and spend the day beating back the disturbing suspicion that somehow, someway, I’ve been an accomplice to a crime. Or, at the very least, an enabler of corruption. Or, worse, I’ll just feel like a simple sucker, an ordinary chump who’ll get exactly what he deserves.

All the same, I’ve considered the arguments and have reluctantly concluded that the Administration is right. We have to vote for their side because the alternative is worse. Far worse. Unthinkable, in fact. Just watch the video of that simian thug slamming his foot on a woman’s head at a Rand Paul event to get a glimpse of where the extreme Right will take us given half the chance. They carry guns. They think the Founding Fathers intended for the country to be a Christian theocracy. They fervently believe that God hates gays, Muslims, and liberal elites like you and me with equal ferocity. They’re pissed off and they want a Fuhrer. They’re doing the muscle work for the plutocrats who run things, and who only need one more bout of Republican political control in order to permanently institutionalize their power. Not to be melodramatic about it, but they must be stopped.

I know, I know, the Democrats are taking us to a similarly dark place. True enough. But they’re doing it more slowly and with some anaesthesia. It’s all we’ve realistically got at this point.

All along, I’ve thought we were the reincarnation of the last decadent days of Rome, a fat dead culture in the throes of an organic and unstoppable decline. Now I’m wondering if we more closely resemble Germany in 1933. Perhaps a uniquely American mixture of both? No matter. There are outright fascists at the core of the Republican party. They’re heavily subsidized, and their chosen candidates are getting uncomfortably close to power. If the only alternative is to vote for corrupt, center-right, go-along-to-get-along Establishment Democrats, that’s just what it will have to be for now. Better Boss Tweed than Mussolini.

It’s like having to choose between cancer or a heart attack. Both will kill you, but one will take a little longer and you might get a few painkillers along the way. Voting for the Democrats is a largely futile, possibly self-defeating rearguard action. But it might buy us a little time to finalize our emigration plans should Republican presidential nominee Jeb Bush or Mitt Romney be forced to choose Sharron Angle as a running mate 2012.

I’ll cravenly vote for the lesser of two evils, again, then go home and scrub with soap and water.