Nel vino la verità

root — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 03:14:00 GMT

When we have a family gathering, two things almost always eventually happen:

Wine bottles get uncorked
Politics gets involved

First off, don't try this at home. My family is sadistic like this, but in all fairness some great conversations have come out of these. The most recent such event happened yesterday at my cousin's birthday party (he turned 11). Mom is a strong believer in the Democratic party, in voting, and doing her civic duty.

(A little background: She has been a High School counselor for umpteen years (you didn't hear me say that) and always puts health care/education as a priority).

Mom, meet root.

Root doesn't believe in voting.

Oh dear.

Safe to say our conversation was interesting. She got very frustrated with me, almost to the point of being angry. I laughed.

So here is a 10 thousand foot view of our debate.

My points:

First, my vote doesn't count. Historically, we've seen cases where electoral votes were put towards a different candidate than what the population voted for. All a moot point to begin with. It was done this way because our founding father's thought the general populus were idoits and educated people should make the decision (I tend to agree with them, even in this day in age).
Second, by the time politicians get to the office, they already owe X amount of people favors which will affect their decision making. The system is broken. Like the politicians, the people that hold the electoral votes can be swayed as well. I will not choose the "lesser" of two evils... not that I can (see point 1)
Third (in answer to Mom's rebuttal of "the way to fix the system is to vote") the only way to fix the system is if I (root) got into politics myself and attempted to fix it from the inside. This would require me quitting my job and dedicating many years to a cause that I don't feel strongly enough to fix in the first place.
Fourth (In response to Bush started a "freaking war" based on a lie, that lesser of two evils is better than nothing), I don't know what Bush had in front of him at the time of his decision to go to war. You can tell me that everything points to there not being WMD but we (general public) don't know that for a FACT. It very well could have been there and then it was moved... Bush could have been acting on the information HE HAD AT HAND. This is all pure speculation, of course. He very well could have lied for his own personal vendetta, or because he holds some stake in the oil. I'm not saying one way or the other because I wasn't there. The bottom line is, I'm not in his shoes and will never be since our government doesn't disclose every little detail they give to the President (for good reasons).
Fifth, last but certainly not least: It's pointless for people to vote just because it's the right thing to do. I can almost guarantee you that the majority of the people in this country don't know our candidate's platforms. People aren't educated on it but vote anyways. Since I don't believe in the system, I'm not going to vote. I'm ignorant of our politics/platforms because I don't believe in it.

This was about 3 hours worth of debating (for me to get my point across). Then she said "But what if everyone thought the way you did?"

My answer: "If common sense was so common, there'd be a heck of a lot more smarter people in this world. Thank God for stupid people."

(Extremely frustrated at this point) "But if they DID all think like you? There wouldn't be a government!"

My answer: "No... I'd be President."

By this time we have a small audience (few are brave enough to confront my mother when it comes to politics) and my Uncle so devilishly decides to chime in "You have my vote."

The moral of the story, my dearest users: "Nel vino la verità". It's an Italian Proverb which roughly translates to "In wine is truth".

I should be President.

root of all evil : Politics

Nel vino la verità