'08

I got this button over the weekend at a shop called the Green Store. They've got lots of stationery, bumper stickers, natural products, etc. I'm evolving into a tree hugger, which is a good thing although I certainly wouldn't have predicted myself heading in this direction. The road to the next presidential election is like an Escher lithograph to me, since it has started so early but seems endless and full of turns. I hope that doesn't mean that the momentum the Democrats have will sputter and die out before November of '08. Politicians seem to forget that Americans have short attention spans. Sure they'll remember the most idiotic things, especially if the media decides to play the crap out of it. Look at poor Howard Dean.

I've spent some time with some politicians at the local pub quiz that's held every Tuesday at a nearby bar and although I've admired the energy I've felt being around them, I've decided that politics is an impossible thing. How do you truly represent your constituents, when their needs conflict with your beliefs? Are you truly a servant to the public? Is it possible to be a politician and a decent human being?
I'm an Edwards supports but I fear he's getting lost amongst the fund raising and huge personalities of Clinton and Obama. The latter two share my feelings on health care and other social issues, but I fear that they may not be electable. I feel like one of those people who wears the t-shirt saying I support the Red Sox and anyone who beats the Yankees, but in this case it is true. I don't want another hollow Republican politican elected. Real change is needed in the health care and health insurance industries, and in other areas and unfortunately I'm unsure if Americans have the vision to elect an African American or a woman. It's sad really. I don't think the democratic process is truly democratic or free. There are still many barriers for those running and those voting. Women have been given the right to vote here for only 87 years. The 15th Ammendment prohibits federal or state governments from infringing on a citizen's right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude," but it wasn't until 1965 and the Voting Rights Act that some of the major obstacles and challenges created to block African American voters were lessened. There still are major obstacles.

Progress comes slow in the United States. Our democracy is not a model to be followed. Maybe the president should have thought of that when he decided to invade Iraq.