Popularity Contest

This November, I will not be voting for Prom King or Queen. I will not be voting in the "Who Is My Best Friend" contest. I will not be voting for a beer buddy or a shoulder to cry on. I will be voting for the President of the United States.

That seems to escape some people. They think they need to like the person they vote for. They treat it like a popularity contest, where the person who is the nicest or the prettiest or the funniest should win. And let's face it, it is a popularity contest. No question about that. We're not living in a period where the electorate is picking any other way.

I don't like Hillary Clinton. I don't know her. I don't like Donald Trump either. Don't know him. And what I do know about both of them suggests that I wouldn't really want to hang out at my place with either of them and chill. They're not my type.

But even if my best friend or my wife or my parents, all of whom I love and enjoy spending time with, were running for president, I'd probably vote for the politician. There are a number of reasons for that, not least of which is that the presidency is a thankless job which horribly ages people and which requires moral compromises which I wouldn't wish on those I love. But a big reason is that the president is not your buddy.

The president is not supposed to be someone to have a beer with.  At the end of the day, you should vote for the candidate who will serve the country best

There are a lot of people who aren't going to vote for Hillary Clinton because they don't like her. That's not a good reason. There are plenty who aren't going to v5ote for Donald Trump because they don't like him. Not a good reason.

I'm not voting for Donald Trump. I think he's an odious pissant who would step over his own mother to make a dime, and I would rather claw my own eyes out than spend a day in the same room with him. But that's not why I'm not voting for him. I'm not voting for him because I disagree with pretty much every policy choice he's likely to make.

I think I might be able to spend the day with Hillary Clinton. Not sure. I know less about her personally, and unlike Trump she's been a politician long enough that her personal life is pretty much totally manufactured anyway, at least as far as I would be able to determine. But part of the reason I don't know much about her personal life is that I don't care. Will she make a better president than Donald Trump? Definitely. Is she likeable? Couldn't care less.

That said, when I criticize Hillary Clinton, because I'm a man, people automatically assume it's because I don't like her. And I don't. But we've gone so far through the looking glass that it's impossible to criticise politicians without it seeming like an ad hominim attack.

I disagree with Hillary Clinton on substantive matters of policy. She's entirely too hawkish for my tastes. But when compared to Donald Trump, she's preferable. Not here to debate whether it's a bad thing to have to choose the lesser of two evils. I don't think she's evil. I just disagree with some of her positions.

But do I like her? Doesn't matter. Is she a woman? Yep. Unless that affects her policies, I don't give a shit. Does she lie? She's a politician. They all lie. We're human. We all lie. Does it affect her policies? Then I care.

I'm not going to tell you how to vote. All this stuff about voting for Hillary Clinton is just disclosure. Vote for Mickey Mouse for all I care. I won't stop you.

But please, vote for the person whose views you support. Don't vote for someone because you think they'd be a good buddy. They aren't your buddy. They're the fucking President.

And if you vote for Mickey Mouse, you're a dumb shit.

The Confederate Flag

I do not believe that there should be a law against displaying the Confederate flag. It's your right as an American to fly whatever flag you want to fly. It's a part of history and shouldn't be white-washed away. But if you fly the Confederate flag, or you don't understand why people get pissed off when people fly the Confederate flag, like it's just no big deal, you need to wise up.

It's not about tradition. It's not about history or heritage. The Confederate flag is about one thing: commemorating the armed rebellion of almost half the country in support of racism.

The Civil War was about slavery. That's not reductionist nonsense, that's fact. If you say it was about states' rights, you're correct: specifically, it was about a state's right to have legalized slavery. If you say it was about the economy, you're also correct: specifically, it was about the fact that the South had virtually no economy without slaves.

So if you're flying the flag of the side that was fighting to own slaves, that says something. It says you support that side. You don't fly the flag of a country you don't support. You don't wear the opposing team's jersey to the big game.

Now, you may be fine with that. And it's your right as an American to fly that flag. But you can't get offended if I call you a racist.

More than that, if you believe that flying the flag isn't racist, then you're ignoring the concerns of people who see it as a symbol of racism. Sure, some of those people, like me, are white, but a lot of them are not. Which means you're ignoring how those people, of a different race, feel. You're giving more credence to the views of white people than of black people.

Now you may be fine with that. And it's your right as an American to do it. But you can't get mad if I call that action racist.

And here's the kicker: it doesn't matter at all what you think. If you love black people with every fiber of your being in your head, but you treat them worse than you treat white people, you're acting racist, and that means you are a racist.

And if I tell you this and you get butt-hurt about it, well now you know how it makes black people feel when they see that flag that you don't see anything wrong with.

If you act racist, you are a racist. And if that's an insult to you, maybe work on being less racist.

But again, it is your right as an American to be a racist. You just don't have any right to stop me from calling it like I see it.