The politics of pissed-off-ness

[nancylebov]

So far, I see fundamentalists who are not going to be volunteering for the Republicans because they're put in a lot of work and gotten little back for it and/or are unhappy with the state of the nation, moderate Republicans who think their party has been taken away from them, Hilary supporters who think she was entitled to the nomination, and progressives who think Obama is way too far to the right.

Some will vote for the candidate who's vaguely on their side, but withhold volunteer work and/or money. Some will stay home or vote for third party candidates. A few (I don't think it will be more than that, but I've been wrong before) will vote for the other side. Well, actually, as an Obama supporter, I'm hoping for a lot of those moderate Republicans, but I don't know what to expect.

I'm vividly aware that this is a very important election, but this is mostly striking me as funny. It sounds like an Illuminatus game. And what's funnier is that all my life, I've heard complaints about Americans ignoring politics.... and now that we've got an election that people feel strongly about-- a lot of them are going to be less politically active as a result.

Comments

[esmereldachubb.livejournal.com]

My personal take on this is that no matter who the candidate is, for either party, a large part of the constituency is going to be pissed off because he/she is not "their" candidate and they don't agree with some/all of what the candidate stands for. To me, it's an inevitable result of having only two parties in an incredibly diverse country.

That said, for me there's one constant from the last election to this one: with the Republican party divided (no matter how they try to portray it in their spin interviews), and George Bush's approval ratings in the toilet, and John McCain promising to continue his policies, if the Dems can't pull a victory out of this election I may spend all of Nov. 5 banging my head against a wall.