trapvector's Journal: shitsurei shimasu

It's midnight, and all the results from the Democratic primaries/caucuses are in. John Edwards wins South Carolina and loses Oklahoma by the thinnest of margins. Howard Dean still has yet to win a state, and John Kerry... well, nuts to him.

Ever since before the primaries started, the US media has portrayed Howard Dean as an angry, frustrated man with a big chip on his shoulder. I think that if I were Gov. Dean, I would just now be getting angry. Perhaps he is - with Chris Matthews on MSNBC tonight, he grabbed control of the interview a couple of times to remind anyone who was listening that he was the only candidate who had done any of the things that all of them are promising (balance a budget, provide universal health care, etc.). I think the governor is getting a raw deal, and if I were him, I'd be pretty pissed, too.

This "electability" business is nonsense. The United States is practically split down the middle, political-preference-wise. If the mantra is "how can we beat that smirking, nepotist frat boy," then he still gets to steer the debate. A campaign based on "No, you're wrong, you idiot" probably won't win an election. What if it does? What if the most electable candidate turns out to be the one that's most like Bush, but not quite Bush? You mean like John Kerry? Great. Then we get a Democratic president who screws us sideways from the other direction, after smiling and taking all kinds of money from the individuals who run political action committees instead of the committees themselves.

This is not a current-events primer, I promise.

*sigh* All I can think to write about is how angry I am at various parts of American government. I don't think that's very productive, though, so maybe I'll just call it a day.

(I still don't have a social security card. I just haven't needed it, I guess, and it's safer knowing that nobody can steal it.)