Over the past few months I’ve been having an interesting experience which has deepened my understanding of the world, human thought and especially American politics. Bush was elected president when I was too young to be thinking about right or left as metaphors for thought. In 2004, my first election was the presidential election and I endured a baptism of fire into the American political world. To loosely quote Hunter Thompson, I was part of a grand wave of good vibes which we all believed would simply prevail.

Well, we didn’t prevail, and for four more years I sang in the choir of discontent. Pithy anti-bush quotes galore, complete with all manner of closed-mindedness. After Obama was elected, it seemed like everything in the world would change and the “other side” would fade away in our triumph. But, the other side keeps going with their own “no-bama” pithy sayings and ignorance. While I’m obviously still somewhat liberal minded, I now realize the pointlessness of dogging a president relentlessly.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Bush deserved to be questioned seriously for his actions in Iraq amongst other things, but “serious questioning” doesn’t accurately describe the hedonistic revelry with which my liberal compatriots and I insulted the man. I think my point is maybe we need to all just grow up a little.

Is it just me, or is politics being treated more and more like some kind of reality TV game show? It seems like some kind of performance that gets consumed rather than a method for distinguishing the values of a leader.

For example, the kerfuffle over whether or not Obama really “sold” his being a Christian at Rick Warren’s questioning. I’m a Christian and I couldn’t give a crap whether or not Obama “sold” his “performance” as a Christian. What about whether or not he’ll fish the economy out of the crapper, or whether or not he’ll go to war? Religion is a private thing, and while I don’t think it’s impossible for a politician to be sincerely religious, I resent the way Christianity as played a a chip in the game. Perhaps I resent, more than anything, how people watch these performances and make judgments based on them.

Then there was that whole bit with Hillary not really selling her support for Obama at the convention. What more is she supposed to say than “I support Barack Obama for president”? Should she give him a blow job on national television? Then the pundits would argue about whether or not she swolled, or how much she spilled, and ultimately decide whatever the hell they wanted to decide about it.

It seems like it used to be more about “the issues” than it is now. Even when the politicians would lie about what they would do, at least they were talking about important things. Now it’s all about how good of an actor the candidate is. Do we really want a really good actor for president? Someone who lies with expertise? Honestly, I could hardly tell whether people on the radio were talking about the election or the Olympics.

Treating politics like the Olympics is extremely dangerous. This is not a game; this is real life, and we are playing with our lives.