Between Barack and a Hard Place

Up to this point I haven't really discussed politics since there's no better way to alienate people than to talk politics. But with primary season upon us I've got political fever and since it's my blog I'm going to talk about it. I have to admit that I'm a bit of a political junkie. Well I should clarify, I'm a political junkie when it comes to American politics. I realize this is a bit odd with me being Canadian and all but if national elections were a sport, American presidential elections would be the Superbowl of political events. Canadian elections on the other hand would be like the world series of tetherball. Sure it's sort of still a sport but could there be a more banal exercise. I mean, I'll still watch it for a couple of minutes if nothing else is on but eventually I'll come to the realization that staring at a blank screen would be more interesting.

There are a few reasons why I've always been pretty intrigued with politics and one of them is the fact that I have a bit of political pedigree. Okay maybe pedigree isn't the best word for it but my dad was quite a political maverick in his day and as his kids we were forced into action in many of his landmark crusades. The thing was, my dad had a real penchant for choosing slightly extreme and some may say futile causes. For example, one of my earliest political memories was when my dad got very involved with a group called the Alliance for the Preservation of English in Canada (or APEC as it was known to insiders like me and my six year old brother). Anyway, the main goal of this "political lobby group" was to end Canada's policy of official bilingualism and go back to just one official language which I believe they were hoping would be English. I actually did an internet search for APEC recently just to see what came up and found out some pretty interesting things. Apparently, in their prime they held a lot of Quebec flag stomping ceremonies which ended up sort of backfiring because it fueled up the Quebec sovereignty movement. Well that's certainly annoying. I can't believe I wasted an entire summer going door to door with all those stupid flyers while my sister typed letters to the prime minister only to end up furthering the very movement I was supposed to be ending when I was nine. I'm not sure whether I believe that though because I'm pretty sure if there had been some flag stomping going on my dad would have had us all there front and center in our Sunday best. My research also found that in addition to their opposition to the horror that is the French language they apparently also fought some other noteworthy battles against things like immigration and homosexuality. See now that makes a little more sense as I do recall a very memorable gay immigrant themed pinata party we attended one beautiful summer's eve when I was ten. I remember sort of thinking that the pinatas seemed rather lifelike. I should clarify that my dad isn't actually an extremist. He just happened to have some unique and usually harmless passions.

Okay so that should give you a little idea about my political "pedigree". Although I'm not sure that totally explains why I'm so fascinated with American presidential politics. Truthfully I think in a lot of respects it has to do with the fact that it is very much like a sport. It has drama, intrigue, strategy, emotions, winners, losers, and of course the bragging rights that come with being on the winning side.

In particular, I think that primary season really is the most interesting part of the whole process because it's really not about issues at all. Essentially the candidates within each party have the same stance on the big issues whether it be health care, foreign policy, taxes, etc... They all talk about their different "plans" but since they fundamentally agree on most issues it comes down to perception and emotion and who comes up with the message that resonates the most with voters. Someone like Barack Obama is so intriguing because he's so engaging that I have the feeling that even if he was just a city councillor from Topeka people would still be falling all over themselves to vote for him for President. Whereas someone like Hillary Clinton who is probably the brightest and most experienced of all of the candidates just can't get people to vote for her because they don't "like" her. It's not that I'm a big fan of Hillary's (although I have to admit that she's sort of grown on me much like a fungus) but it does strike me as a bit strange that it's so important to people that their president be someone they'd feel comfortable having a beer with. Truth be told, I also sort of feel sorry for Hillary because she's as smart (if not smarter) than her husband and has definitely paid her dues both personally and politically but I just don't see her winning the nomination. I'm almost positive though that if Bill Clinton was able to run again he'd get elected for another two terms because he's such a top rate "politician".

Then there are the Republicans and I can't really get excited about any of these guys. You've got John McCain who sort of reminds me of that curmudgeonly uncle who yells at you when you drive by his house too fast and who's always telling old war stories. "Hey John, we get it, you were in 'Nam and it sucked. Get over it!" Next there's Huckabee who I'm still surprised has gotten as far as he has. Then again, who can resist a guy who plays a bass guitar and has lost 150 pounds. It's the American dream. He's like the Jared Fogle of politics. Of course there's Romney who seems to be the most polished of all of the Republican candidates but everybody's scared because he's a Mormon. I think Mormons are scary too and I'm not sure why. At the end of the day though it's interesting to me that Republicans would probably vote for an agnostic before they'd vote for a Mormon.

I think it's going to be a pretty interesting year in American politics. I know it's really early but my prediction is that Barack Obama will be the next American president. I just think it's going to be very tough to stop the Obamarama bus once it gets rolling...especially if Oprah's riding shotgun.