I couldn’t tell you where it started, the notion that a candidate running for office has to meet ALL the criteria you put on them. I have seen this especially with presidential candidates and now that I think about it the search for perfection goes back further than these recent years.
Unfortunately, we have a two-party system, something many of the founding fathers never wanted for the country, and with a two-party system you end up with opposing views and these two sides trying to make sure they are as far away from their opponents as they can be. Until recently we didn’t now how far people were willing to go in either direction, the Republicans created the Tea Party (or tea baggers as I like to call them) and on the left there is a socialist movement that has been growing since Occupy Wallstreet. Occasionally you hear somebody referring to themselves as a centrist but the media can’t make money on a person who is agreeable, while most of the nation’s voters ride the line in the center.
I had issues with this perfect candidate idea over the years, disliking John Kerry because he sounded like Dubya Bush but wearing a different suit and tie. John McCain could have had my vote if he had not lost his mind with the poor choice of his running mate. Dean had his scream. Gore’s wife couldn’t keep her hands off my record collection. Dubya was caught on tape saying he didn’t care about black churches. And the list goes on and on.
These days I support Andrew Yang, no this post isn’t about Yang I’m just using this to make a point. I had people say “I want to like him but….” Then out of the 76 policies posted on Yang’s website they will pick one or two and say “I can’t support this.” So, I would have to assume you are in favor of the other 74 polices? This is where I lose my mind. After an election with the two worst candidates ever to have run for office people are still nit picking over stupid polices that in all odds will never see the light of day even if Yang, or Gabbard, or Bernie made it into office. How many policies did Obama get through before his administration was tied down in patrician bullshit? One.
There are things I like about the other candidates. Warren wants to break up the big tech companies and after a hellish six months of trying to cancel my Sprint service I would prefer she burned them to the ground and brought back oil lamps. Gabbard wants us to stay out of foreign wars and stop making money for companies who profit on war, right on man. Bernie, well Bernie, ugh Bernie is old and I don’t know what he wants to do anymore or what he could accomplish in the five minutes he would live after getting into office. Beto has been playing the wallflower at the high school class presidential election kegger, refusing to piss anybody off.
These people will be in my face non-stop for the coming year until they start dropping like flies. Even Joe Biden is having a hard time managing his sexual harassment charges. I have to say if a picture is a thousand words, then the videos I watched of Biden recently are thousands of creepy words.
With all these things I liked I still had to choose one. How did I manage to narrow it down? I picked the guy that spoke with the least amount of bullshit. I don’t agree with everything that Yang says. There are policies that I am not sure about or agree with. While Yang is not perfect he is the best candidate I have found for me. Some people may call this “selling out” or “settling” which makes it sound like we are dating these people. I don’t believe I am in some kind of puppy love state of mind. I would like to think this is a rational choice that I have made and free from some partisan crap. Hell, Yang isn’t even a politician.
I’m going to stay away from the “lesser of two evils” cop out that we often hear. This is more about being an adult and making adult choices. Most people don’t pay attention until there are only two options. Maybe it’s the stress of having too many options like shopping in a super market with fifty different choices of tomato soup. Or maybe it’s the fatigue of constantly being lied to over the years and no longer wanting to participate. Or maybe its because they can’t find anybody who is perfect.
Plato once talked about the idea of perfection, the apple you see in your mind that you will never find because the apple you imagine is flawless, and yet when you find an apple, regardless of all its flaws you still bite into it and enjoy it.
You will never find a perfect candidate. It’s like shopping on Match.com and when you do find that special someone there are things they either lied about or completely left out, bad credit, mental illness, crazy ex-boyfriend that might kill you. In any case, people have closets and they tend to hide things in them from their guests.
When I visit a person’s place for the first time, I tend to glance at the book shelf or DVD collection. Harder to do these days with people reading on kindles and subscribing to Netflix. There is a lot to learn about a person by seeing what they decide to put into their heads. Trump doesn’t read. That is all I needed to know.
Recently there was a discussion about Yang not making a statement on transgender something something day. I have no idea what day this is, whether or not it’s a real holiday, or if it was made up for people to become angry about when it’s not talked about. Personally, I don’t care. You won’t find me shoving Black History Month in everyone’s face or crying about Valentine’s Day. Supporters of Yang brought this up and there was a positive uproar in response. Positive because there was a backlash of people asking “what is really important?” I couldn’t agree more. Yang didn’t send out a tweet or make an announcement on television saying “yay, it’s chicks with dicks day!” most likely he was on the road traveling to his next interview or rally. Maybe he was sleeping because he has been on the road since last year. The social justice calendar might have been lost among all the other things he has been dealing with. I was happy to see that most supporters of Yang either didn’t care he missed a fake holiday or supported him not talking about it. The person who posted the question said they were concerned about if he really cared about the LGBTQLMNOP community or if it was made up. I think those people have more to be concerned about than if someone said “hi” on TV.
Yang isn’t perfect and if people are trying to point out his flaws by missing a day that most people didn’t know about than I am glad to keep him as my guy. I’m waiting for the next version of 50 Shades of Grey (Biden’s Bondage) to be released and be forced to hear all the juicy details of his sexual misconduct. Gabbard is too relaxed to not have a medical card for some “herbs.” Bernie might slip in the tub a few more times. Yang isn’t perfect, but I haven’t found anything that I can’t accept.