Another political post.

I'm conflicted about the upcoming election. The last time I got mad at Hastert, I ran into a letter-writing problem. My Congressman, Brad Miller is a Democrat, which means he really doesn't have much input on who is the Speaker of the House unless the Democrats are in the majority. OTOH, because I'm mad at Hastert, I really don't want to give him another Republican seat.

Miller's opponent in the upcoming election, Vernon Robinson has been a little over the top on his ads. For instance, he's accused Miller of supporting the idea of "letting homosexuals bring in their foreign gay lovers on a marriage visa." When I first heard this, I really had a hard time figuring out where Miller was coming from. It took a while for me to recognize that no politician would actually vote for a bill titled "An Act of Congress to allow homosexual Americans to bring in foreign gay lovers on a marriage visa"; not even a politician with his own foreign gay lover. Instead, I'm pretty sure this line is just a creative way of saying "Brad Miller is opposed to a same-sex Constitutional Amendment." Just like the line "Brad Miller voted to allow illegal aliens to burn the American flag while waving the Mexican flag." As if the bill were titled something along those lines. Or as if Miller gave advice to the various Marching Mexicans groups that they ought to do that.

Yesterday, a local radio station interviewed the two (separately). At the end of Miller’s interview (right when the hosts asked about the "gay marriage visa thing"), Miller asked "when are we going to talk about jobs, predatory lending, ...?"

Which got me thinking. No politician is going to oppose more jobs. No politician is going to support crappier schools. Of course, politicians have their own opinions on how to get more jobs (say, lower taxes vs. more government involvement) and better schools (say, vouchers vs. more government involvement), etc. And, to be completely honest, most voters don’t really know which path is more likely to work. So instead, they fall back to "you support letting homosexual Americans bring in their foreign gay lovers on a marriage visa?!"

Strangely, I watch politics, but I wouldn't want to get involved in politics. It's simply too dirty. My fascination is similar to the morbid fascination people have when they see a train wreck. Anyhow, this general issue is important to Democratic politicians.