For obvious reasons, the 1980s have been on many people's minds lately. Perhaps to better understand those times and today's, one should take a page from the official, definitive book on the 1980s:
Bret Easton Ellis's novel "American Psycho."
The celebrated book dives headfirst into the mind of its antihero protagonist Patrick Bateman, a Wall Street yuppie who moonlights as a serial killer.
In my favorite sequence, Bateman steals a urinal cake from a fancy restaurant and takes it back to his apartment where he covers it in chocolate syrup. He then pops it into a Godiva chocolate box and presents it to his girlfriend, Evelyn, one night at dinner. She hesitantly takes a big bite out of it before commenting, "It's so minty!"
Just one of many laugh-out loud scenes that should have made the movie.
In elections, many voters go in with the attitude that they are voting for a person. But who the candidate is, his or her personality and humanity, is only the chocolate glaze on the outside. In the long run, its significance pales to what truly matters, what we're really biting into: their urinal cake of policies, plans and ideas.
The two are separate entities.
Talking with apolitical friends, the sentiment is often, "Well I don't really like Bush and what he's done, but I don't really like Kerry either."
To which the necessary reply is an exasperated, "Who cares who you like more?! All that matters is which person has better ideas!"
Even long before its birth, the three letters that defined electoral politics in this country were not USA but MTV. Crazy, sexy, cool! Forget about policies, it's all about personality! Which politician would I rather have over for dinner? Who's more charming and charismatic?
Consider the last election. Al Gore, the more experienced, eloquent, intelligent candidate with the ideas that most people agreed with only received about a half million more votes than Bush. He then proceeded to let the mess in Florida slip away from him.
Why?
Among several factors, there's that between the two, Bush is the more personable guy. Subtract any feelings you might have on them based on their politics and just go on their manufactured, campaign persona. Bush's chocolate glaze is more appetizing than Gore's.
What one has to do is scrape off the candy outside and examine the urinal cake beneath. (It's often not a pleasant task, which is why so many people and much of the media do not do it.)
Which has been sprayed by more corporations? Take a whiff. Which smells like it's going to have more anonymous, impoverished non-white people blown up in countries faraway?
Democrat or Republican, you're biting into a urinal cake. Which cake is fresher, though, is what's up to debate.
There is a certain optimism in this election, though. When the world's a bit shaken up -- as it is now in comparison to 2000 -- people tend to think more critically. There's also the factor that Kerry is light-years ahead of Gore in personality points. Will he be able to beat Bush in that department? Maybe. It's too soon to tell. He might not have to. The stench emanating from Bush's urinal cake by November could be so overwhelming that no amount of chocolate could mask it. **2&-¦+â-ÜY~zo_swindle_14DNEditorial**2SORT+â-ä2AUDT
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