Softy's The Body Politic
So, I look at it like this, jerks. When you vote for president, it's a
vote fundamentally different than voting for any other type of elected
office in the United States. This country doesn't have proportional
government. We don't vote for parties. In local and state elections we
vote for managers, in Congressional elections we votes for votes.
Jerks.
In Presidential elections, you're not voting for one man, one person.
Why do you feel like you're only voting for half a man when you punch
that ballot? It's because you're voting for less than that - actually,
a couple chunks of a body. Bloody, disgusting parts.
You're only voting for two pieces - a Face and a Skeleton.
Voting for our Face is voting for the front man of United States – the
first impression in every situation. When dealing with other countries
aggressively, diplomatically, and economically, and handling national
events and tragedies, the president is Uncle Sam, the human embodiment
of America's conscience, temperament, outlook, and reactions but only
at the initial level. A superficial distillation into one person the
300 million U.S. people. The face.
When I say you also vote for a Skeleton I mean you vote for the
template, the base, of how our government is going to be run for the
next four years. The Skeleton is the form in which the issues of the
time will be presented. The Skeleton frames positions and dictates if
they are brought to the American conversation as the mainstream or
oppositional voice, or as a preposterous or even traitorous one.
This is important. Many citizens assume (as the candidate's campaigns
often want to portray) that you're voting for a whole man to lead our
country.
We're not. Shockingly enough, we're not voting for the brain of the
government. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we're not voting for its heart or
soul, either. The rest of the people in politics - cabinet members,
congresspersons, lobbyists, activists, policy makers, stockholders,
journalists, soldiers, governors, teachers, and on and on and on and
on - truly fill out that skeleton - its brain, its heart, its soul -
and make it alive.
Oh, yeah, and you. You're a cell in that body, too. Maybe just some
random part of the shoulder, or thigh, or even stuck doing the dirty
work in America's ass. (This analogy could go on forever, hard-working
Americans being the muscle, artists and reporters being the eyes and
ears, doctors and nurses the white blood cells, arguments over who
makes up the balls, is American a hermaphrodite, but that's a whole
other thing. Like was voting for Clinton the face, the skeleton, and
the penis... okay I'll stop.)
But the point is you're part of it. We all may more or less important
functions in the grand scheme of things, may be critical or
inconsequential cells - but we all make up the United States' Voice.
It doesn't matter if America's skeleton mispronounces words or the
U.S. face has been in Cambodia. After months of campaigning at times
vicious and inspiring, blunt and deceitful, proud and pathetic, the
Presidential election is far less (and far more) important than it's
been presented.
What shape should America take? And what should it look like when
shows itself to others? And when it looks at itself in the mirror?
When you look at yourself in the mirror?
So vote.
Jerks.
