I want a dyke for president...

Even as a student of political science and a reader of The Economist, I am getting fed the fuck up with this election crap. More and more it's becoming apparent that politics is all a game. It's a game to get elected, and it's a game to stay in office and then get re-elected. The pandering to the lowest common denominator is making me angry.

When did the US start going backwards? Our social policies (explicitly disallowing gay marriage or even civil unions, implementing abstinence-only education, limiting access to safe abortions, etc) are centuries behind those of many European countries, and the economy is going to shit because of rich white guys and their predatory mortgages and their tax cuts for themselves, not to mention the wars they start to make themselves richer.

Every candidate is campaigning on a platform of change. Oh, you want to effect change? Not too risky a platform when you're running against the president with the lowest approval ratings in history (not to mention that he should be impeached and tried for war crimes, but whatever). But what kind of change could we expect from Mike Huckabee, the evangelical Christian pastor who doesn't "believe" in evolution and thinks a woman should "submit to her husband?" What kind of change could we expect from Rudy Giuliani, whose scare tactics have even surpassed those of George "the terrorists will win if Democrats are elected" Bush? What kind of change can we expect from any politician (including the spineless democrats except for Kucinich) who panders to the Christian right, won't give a straight answer to any question, won't state outright his or her support for gay rights, who says he or she is against the war but continues to vote to fund it, and who won't begin impeachment proceedings on the most criminal, despicable, and greedy little man to ever occupy the White House?

I want someone who lives and lets live. I want someone who doesn't care what consenting adults do in their bedrooms. I want someone who is black, who is a woman, who isn't a rich white man with corporations in his pocket. I want someone who's done drugs and will admit to it as it is: something fun you do when you're young, and something that is generally harmless when done responsibly. Someone who is an atheist and doesn't believe that an invisible being is commanding him to invade a country that posed no threat and was completely contained. Someone who will stand with the poor, the mistreated, the forgotten, the veterans, the drug addicts, the children. Someone who will stop fucking cutting funding for education, state parks, and the criminal justice system. Someone who will raise taxes and who will say that out loud. Someone who has experienced hardship and loss and has become better for it. Someone who knows what it's like to have to choose between feeding a family and feeding oneself. Someone who doesn't think that birth control is a "sin," and who realizes that human overpopulation is a real problem. Someone who is a humanitarian who won't let religious dogma destroy a continent. Someone who doesn't reject science because it's not convenient. Someone who can help this country regain its dignity and the respect of the rest of the world. Someone who understands why the rest of the world hates us and knows how to fix it. Someone who doesn't think the Constitution is just a "goddamn piece of paper." Someone who's real.

I came across this a few months ago and I think it's pretty cool. I don't agree with all of it but it definitely got me thinking.