Playing to lose

If you weren’t in the treehouse when we first started planning this, I’ll let you in on a little secret. You just have to promise not to tell the liberals because they have cooties and smelly faces. Okay, ready? We’re all going to try and vote for Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nominee. It will be so awesome. She’s not as strong as Sen. Barack Obama and will probably lose to Sen. John McCain, LOL!\nYeah, it’s that bad. And before you really get into analyzing this, before you really dissect the inherent idiocy of the worldview that even allows such scheming, I think it’s necessary to reflect on how badly it reflects that humanity’s noblest endeavors bring out the worst in us. May 6th’s impending surge of “liberals” is part of a growing idea: Let’s all sabotage the Democratic primary. \nI wanted McCain to win before it was cool. When all hope was lost and the Straight Talk Express had been resigned to a Radio Flyer, I bought a bumper sticker as a last sign of protest, as I feared the McCain campaign wouldn’t exist to sell me one much longer. That bumper sticker is now proudly displayed on my car in a season that is clearly McCain’s. I don’t mind being a jerk about what I believe, but here’s where I draw the line – taking away the rights of others to be just as much of a jerk as I am. \nNow, I love my conservative brothers and sisters. I even love the ones who reject evolution; they’re like my backwards cousins. But what I love even more is democracy, how the president is chosen because of the collective will of the people, and what I hate is when what’s good for some trumps what’s good for most.\nI mean, really. The primaries are a hopeful beginning to what could be a great four years, but it reduces us all to scheming highschoolers. There’s so little to discuss right now, so we’re as rabid as possible when we discuss it. In a little bit, when Obama or Clinton drops out and has absolutely no trouble getting behind the other (since they’re basically the same to begin with), we can finally discuss meaningful difference. But it’s odd that their being almost exactly the same actually produces more strife, not less. \nTrying to interfere with the primary of another party is essentially saying you distrust democracy. It’s saying that the majority of people are simply too dumb to be allowed to impact politics. And that’s odd, considering that such elitism is precisely what we accuse liberals of espousing; more control of a central party over the decisions and lives of its citizenry. That just isn’t right. Conservatism is about believing in the potential of individuals to do the right thing, and letting them do it for themselves. It’s ironic, really. A conservative voting in the Democratic primary won’t only look like a hypocrite; he might just become one.