politics
Every night, I lie in bed and read the New York Times on my phone. First I read some of the big headline pieces. Then I skip over to the real estate section and read about a girl and a guy who really need a quieter apartment, since their last one was next to a construction site—will they find one? They look at a place in Harlem. They look at a place in Morningside Heights. Time is running out! At the last minute– they find something! Phew. I read about the new building with affordable luxury apartments that’s going up on the west side in midtown. I read about trends involving lamps and the story of a particular street sign.
“Why do you want to read that stuff?” asks Bear.
“Because,” I say, but then realize I’m not sure. I just do. Unimportant article after unimportant article. “Listen!” I say, excited, “Here’s one about big couches! The writer thinks couches have gotten too big.”
(source)
“Really?” says Bear, without looking up from the word game he is playing on his phone.*
Technology. It connects us to the world. It separates us from one another.
Actually, I don’t really care about that very much.
Recently, a lot of the headlines have been about Romney and Newt and Santorum. With some Huntsman and Perry sprinkled in, for reference. Of course, there’s plenty of Obama, but now it’s more about Obama as relates to Romney and Newt and Santorum. Opinion pieces, and full, serious articles. Piece after piece after piece– they come faster every day– they grow thicker– like salmon spawning. It’s that time of year. It’s that part of our four-year news cycle. And it’s just getting started.
Already, I am tired. There is a dead, metallic taste in my mouth. I am experiencing tiny PTSD-like flashbacks.
Regular people who are now all potential voters are getting riled up in mega churches somewhere deep in Iowa, where I have never been and can’t exactly imagine. They are aligning themselves with camps that will soon march out to war. They lend the Times reporter passionate quotes, little bits of themselves.
Here is a piece about a number of politicians and their hypocrisy. It’s a popular topic, and you can understand why. It’s pretty striking. It should be shocking. Perry is an easy target– he’s talking about how gay people are ruining America in his ad called “Strong.” He has said things about how being gay is like having sex with animals, about how a kid would be better off with a dad in jail than two law-abiding moms at home. And suddenly he’s saying something to the good people of New Hampshire about how he’d love any gay son of his like any straight son of his. He’s saying he has a lot of respect for gay people. Uh huh. Uh huh.
On and on. Huge chains of lies, unspooling. Article after article after opinion piece.
Scrolling through them, I feel like the world has stopped. Like it is stagnant, a polluted film collecting on the surface, sealing us in. Why do we do this, again and again? I remember it from when I was eight. I remember it from when I was a teenager, and in college, and in grad school. The same cycles of gossip and backstabbing and spending unconscionable amounts of money for just the chance, the fleeting, taunting chance, at getting elected. Our country seems to stop in its tracks, mesmerized perhaps by its warped, blurring reflection in the film on the top of the water, and stare and groom and forget to eat while it fixates. It’s a long, thorough, pointless process. Nothing is ever actually resolved. And if, for a moment, it is, the wheel will swing around again soon enough, and progress, clinging to the underbelly, will be knocked into fragments.
And here, nestled between headlines about super PACs and corrupt senators and Romney’s time at Bain Capital, here is a little op-ed piece about one-time youth offenders who were arrested and then cleaned up their act and never got arrested again and still can’t get a job, anyway, even though they were only fourteen when they got busted with that cocaine. Even though they are now in their thirties and have kids to support. Even though they are only applying for a job in a boiler room. They are still being punished, because America remembers. Because it is right there on their record.
The internet, the op-ed piece explains, makes all of this so easy. Records and information are so accessible– crimes linger, at the employer’s fingertips, forever. Everything lingers there, forever. I know. Pieces I wrote that I never want to see again leap onto the screen when I google myself (which is why I almost never do).
But here is Romney, talking about his financial struggles, and Newt, talking about the sanctity of marriage, and Perry, talking about how gay people are human, too. And practically everyone else who is trying to run this country or currently taking part in running this country— they are drawing bold lines in the sand. And all you have to do is google them, just once, to learn how little their pasts affect them.
Some people are punished forever, for one thing. And some people–Some of the most dangerous people, are never punished at all.
The internet must not be doing its job. It must not really be as worthy an adversary as my dad believes it is when he send my brothers and I cautionary tales about someone’s Facebook profile ruining their life.
Bear has fallen asleep.
I flip back to the real estate section, where someone is writing about wall paper. Does anyone use it anymore? Some people do, and they get creative with it!
Thank god.
(source)
* * *
I’m sorry. I almost NEVER write about politics. But I got so worked up last night, that I had to do this post. I promise not to make it a regular thing.
Free stuff over here! It’s great! The giveaway ends in just a few more days!
Unroast: Today I love the way I look when my hair curls, the way it likes to do. I blow dry it in the winter, so it’s always straight.
*Bear’s stepmom, I’m looking at YOU. He hasn’t stopped playing it since you told him about it. I asked him if he was really good at it (like the last one– word finder?) and he said, “Not yet” and went back to concentrating 🙂
This piece also appears in the Huffington Post here.
Kate on January 10th 2012 in Uncategorized
jeanie responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 12:57 pm #
Great post, Kate. No need to apologize for talking about politics! I hope you write more posts like this one, it’s cool that you’re willing to mix it up.
San D responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 1:03 pm #
I always said that people in countries under repressive regimes, just want to live, laugh, have a piece of land to farm, drink a little, eat a little, and pet their farm animals. We are no different. The political theater that happens every four years is when powerful people on both sides want to vie for those few positions (including POTUS), and they have to gladhand and posture, and eat a lot of chicken, mashed potatoes and peas. It’s all a show until it affects you personally. Until you find that your health care isn’t the same, or you find your taxes going up, or your neighbor and his partner can’t get married, or the draft is back, or or or or or or….then we all wonder “how it all happened”. Because once the circus is over, we all go back to our metaphorical little plot of land and pet our farm animals. As responsible citizens we need to somehow ferret out the truth, figure out what is best for our country and ourselves and vote responsibly. That’s how the system was set up. If you think the propaganda is brutal in this election cycle, it is as the Talking Heads would sing “same as it ever was”. And to your point about past aggressions coming back to haunt you, as Shakespeare penned “the past is prologue” (or in modern parlance “Karma is a bitch”)
Kellie responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 3:03 pm #
Powerful Kate. I love this line: Already, I am tired. There is a dead, metallic taste in my mouth. I am experiencing tiny PTSD-like flashbacks. I hear you! Also your stagnant, polluted film reference is perfect! The equivalent of political pond scum! Please write more!
San D responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 3:43 pm #
opps not “aggressions” meant “transgressions”….
Lynellekw responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 3:44 pm #
Politics makes me depressed. If I could change one thing about our system of government (speaking as an Australian living in England!) it would be political advertising. If I could have my way, each candidate would be allowed to produce a single sheet of A4 paper, with their achievements over the last electoral period on one side and their plans in bullet point on the other side. They wouldn’t be allowed to make any advertisements referencing any opposing party. No smear campaigns, no million bits of paper in the letterbox, no faces tacked up on poles, no nothing. No-one else would be allowed to produce political advertising, either – only the candidates involved. That’s my I-wish scenario. Then maybe I’d have a hope of figuring out what’s actually being planned and promised – I can never work out what plans are being offered to the public.
It just always feels like the same stories, every time. The same accusations, the same promises, the same everything. There’s always some group or another getting militant and insisting that the incumbent is the spawn of some kind of hell-demon – or that the opposition is. There’s always someone rejoicing jubilantly when their party gets in, then getting steadily further disappointed when it sinks in that life continues to be more or less what it was before. It always make me weary. I’d rather read about couch fashions and apartment-hunting, too.
Bethany responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 6:40 pm #
I’ll be the odd one out and say that I really enjoy reading about politics. You do have to read a *lot*, and from both sides to get a clear view of things, but I want us to have good leaders. I want America to be a good place. And when my kids ask me about controversies over abortion, the economy, our wars, etc., I want to be able to tell them exactly where I stood on things and why.
…But I also like to read about the big couches. 😉
Amy responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 7:07 pm #
Kate, this is a great piece. I wouldn’t be too quick to avoid writing more about politics if I were you, if you find yourself moved to do so. I’d be happy to read more.
Spelling responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 7:54 pm #
Hey, I’m from Iowa, and contrary to popular belief, we don’t all talk in Texan accents, we don’t all live on farms, there is plenty to do, we don’t eat all food that we canned and just brought up from the root cellar, and we don’t have revival meetings (or political meetings, or meetings of any sort in churches, just church services). Please watch your use of stereotypes!
Otherwise, yeah. Politics suck.
Kate responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 8:21 pm #
@Spelling
Wait, is this to me? Texan accents? I’m not even sure why I would think that!
And I wasn’t using a stereotype– I was mentioning an article, in the NYTimes, about Iowan mega churches. That’s all. Really. 🙂
Sooz responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 8:49 pm #
Most of the time I try not to make sweeping generalizations but I’ll say this about politicians: they’re liars and I don’t trust any of them.
Also, I don’t read or watch the news almost ever b/c I am diagnosed with PTSD and all the negativity really triggers me.
Finally, I love “mindless” reading. That’s why I buy and read things like People magazine. It helps me relax after a busy busy day.
Thanks for another thought provoking post, Kate!
p.s. sorry for this random comment
San D responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 9:07 pm #
@spelling
ME? then I’m sorry if you thought I meant Iowa, I certainly didn’t. I used the example of REPRESSED REGIMES, and that most people in those societies, (think North Korea or Russia for example) just want to get by with a small plot of land to survive, and that their “dear” leaders come and go. I then took the metaphor to mean that we go through our own lives just trying to survive too, and that these elections will come and go as well.
carol responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 11:33 pm #
Seriously, I’m GLAD that couches are getting bigger. THe ones that are the most comfy are usually big and ugly.. but comfy!! It’s time that comfort trumps design if you ask me.
Kate responded on 10 Jan 2012 at 11:41 pm #
@Carol
I couldn’t agree more. Honestly, I was a little offended by the piece, because my couch is HUGE. And it’s the real first piece of furniture I picked out and bought.
P Flooers responded on 11 Jan 2012 at 7:32 am #
Standing. Clapping.
Mary responded on 11 Jan 2012 at 10:49 am #
Thank God, indeed. This is the most beautiful writing about politics I’ve read in a long time.
Kate responded on 11 Jan 2012 at 1:31 pm #
Hey, thanks guys! You’re making me feel relieved. And happy.
stuff that happened this week | NoTitles responded on 13 Jan 2012 at 10:54 am #
[…] at Eat the Damn Cake wrote the most beautiful blog post about politics that I have read in a really long […]
dailyjili99 responded on 06 Jan 2026 at 12:46 pm #
Yo, dailyjili99 is my go-to spot! Seriously, they always got the latest games. Solid experience, no cap! Check it out: dailyjili99