Politickin’

Way too much politics here today, folks. My apologies.

I don’t see this site as a political advocacy location, especially when it comes to candidates and political personalities and all that felgercarb. There are way too many other things I have an interest in, as the casual browse here will, I think, demonstrate. Some folks seem to be willing to spend all or most of their time praising candidate X with Hallelujahs, or damning candidate Y with lexical brickbats. I just am not that interested in doing that (nor in reading it). So I’m not writing about Kerry or Bush all that much, except when I think one of them’s done something particularly goofy (that hasn’t been written to death or scripted already into an Us vs. Them moment), or when I think either’s being given a bum rap over something.

But when the thought occurs to me, or my Political Muse gets off her lazy butt and pokes me in the ear, I write about politics, more to simply say what I’m thinking than to persuade anyone. No, really.

It’s interesting. I’ve been cleaning up some of my older categories (moving stuff from them into the newer categories they should be in), and there’s a definite shift in political tone from the earliest entries to today. And it wasn’t 9/11 per se — this blog started only a few short weeks before that. I’m going through some Spring 2002 posts, and there I’m as paranoid and critical — well not as paranoid and critical — of the Bush Administration (remember, I voted for Gore) as the next dude.

It was the lead-up to the Iraq war that was sort of a watershed event here. Becoming convinced that the war was necessary and justified, I found myself taking more … um … well, yeah, kind of conservative positions, just because everyone seemed to be lining up along that axis, regardless of other political and social views.

The fact is, I know that sometimes I come across as a Bush apologist, and that’s not my intent (nor, I think, my position). There are a number of things, mostly social issues, that I disagree strongly with the Administration about, and I write about them here, too. I try not to let that disagreement swerve into hyperbole and demonization (too much), which perhaps may be seen as wishy-washy, but I like to think of as temperate civility.

But while there are any number of things I disagree with the President and Administration on, when I think he’s getting lambasted for something improperly or inaccurately, I’ll raise that, too, just as I’ll do with anyone else, even John Kerry.

So there may be days like this, when political topics pop up. And there may be days where nothing political appears. That lack of specialization means this site will never be an A-List blog, but that’s okay. I’m not doing it for mass readership. I’m doing it for me, and for the family and friends who care to drop by.

So. No more politics for today. Have a good one.