How dare you. (Or: We need some stairway speeches.)

I finally threw in the towel on the issues this election year. I was watching a TV ad on Prop 2 in Michigan[1] and couldn't take it anymore.

How dare you manipulate the facts and then hold me accountable for making an informed decision at the polls.

I hadn't heard about this issue until a few days ago, and now both sides of this debate are dancing like a couple preschoolers that have to go to the bathroom.

The presidential race is no better.

I went straight through disgust and into indignation, where I am comfortably seething and will continue to do so until I walk into the voting booth.

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For crying out loud, tell it like it is and let your constituents use their brains to make a choice. That is what it's about, isn't it?

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No, that's not what it's about. It's about focusing on irrelevant or peripheral facts ("Mr. President, have you looked at your pension?") to avoid examining something more complicated and interesting ("My mega gabillion dollars are handled by a blind trust. Did you hear the word blind? That means I'm not responsible for what others do with my money.")

At one point in the second debate, both Romney and Obama had the chance to discuss HHS and they both blew it. Obama says Romney is anti-contraception and all Romney can say is "No I'm not, no I'm not, you stop saying that."

It took CNN, God bless 'em (sometimes), to point out from a conservative woman's perspective that HHS is not about preventing women from getting access to contraception, but about the constitutional protection of religious conscience. Period. BIG period.

But you won't hear Obama say that. He'll allow a misunderstanding that assists him.

And you won't hear Romney say that, because... well... I don't think he understands it. Too bad, he's got a winner there and doesn't know it. But my guess he's better skilled at hearing a host of elevator speeches and making an executive decision, not crafting a good elevator speech.

I think we need some stairway speeches - long-winded knock-down drag-out stairway speeches, 10 flights at least - where both of these candidates tell me enough of the truth so I can make up my own mind.

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NPR, commenting on the contraception debate, used a soundbite of a woman who said something to the effect "we have more important things to worry about," but the story was meant to give insight into what was important, not if it should or should not be important, so there was no editorial comment.

By which the listener may assume the issue really is unimportant. If you dismiss something, even by editorial omission, you can get others to dismiss it too.

And someday, when enough people want to make another exception to the Constitution, it just may be something more of us do think is important.

The beauty of a constitutional democracy is that at any one point in time, it doesn't matter what popular opinion is, it matters what the law says. It survives shifting opinions, which are more often the face of competing agendas, not nationwide consensus.

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Vote Yes on Michigan Prop 2

Vote No on Michigan Prop 2

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Related:
Study links 45,000 U.S. deaths to lack of insurance . Source >

About four in 10 American pregnancies are terminated by abortion. From 1973 through 2008, nearly 50 million legal abortions occurred. Source >

A vote for either Romney or Obama will elect a man who will directly contribute to the deaths of those who are too weak, poor, marginalized, or small to protect themselves.

That is not a choice.

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The sad fact is that those running for office don't care what I think, as long as there are enough folks who aren't thinking.

It's a numbers game. It's not about you or me or aborted fetuses or the poor schlemiel that doesn't go to the doctor until it's too late because he can't afford it.

When I see a yard full of political signs I see someone desperate to belong to something bigger than themselves and manipulated into thinking they do.

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[1]
Ballot Pedia article on Michigan "Protect Our Jobs" Amendment, Proposal 2 (2012)

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Started: 2012-10-19