Are the Primaries Over Yet?

by Tommi Avicolli-Mecca, 2008-01-24

I have a confession to make. I'm bored with the presidential primaries. I want them to be history already. Let the donkeys and the elephants decide who their chosen one is going to be, so that we can all throw up and then go through the motions of electing one of them to the highest office in the land.

The problem is the process has only just begun. The primaries are hardly underway, and already I feel as if they've been going on forever. Not only do we still have many more months of Hillary and Barack fighting like kids, but we also have to keep listening to those damn Republican front runners. A more Neanderthal bunch I've never seen. Which is not to insult Neanderthals. They were probably a lot more likable than Giuliani, Romney, McCain and Huckabee.

If I had to choose among them, I'd probably just slit my wrist.

When the primary madness is over, it's on to the conventions. It's hard to escape them. Avoiding stories about the conventions is like trying not to notice that accident right in front of you. No matter how much you tell yourself to turn away, you just can't avoid looking at the puddles of blood.

It's not that I'm apathetic. Far from it. It's just that my candidate will never make it to the White House. The Easter Bunny will leave a pot of gold under my bed before Dennis Kucinich lands in the Oval Office.

I've given up on a progressive being elected president in my lifetime. In order to be viable in American presidential politics, a candidate has to demonstrate that he appeals to the average person, whoever that is.

These days the "average" person is probably considered someone who now likes queers, but doesn't want us to marry or adopt kids; tolerates blacks as long as they don't move in next door; and thinks Latinos make great TV sitcom families, but don't want them crossing the border looking for work in a country whose NAFTA treaty crushed any chance they had of making a decent living.

There's no denying that I'd rather a Democrat get into the White House than one of the Stepford Republicans. I'll probably even end up voting for whomever the Dems choose. I'm just not deluding myself into thinking that the revolution is going to happen if Clinton or Obama makes 1600 Pennsylvania their new address.

Even with a Democrat, the war will go on for at least another year (if not two). America won't be joining its sister industrial nations in guaranteeing universal healthcare for all, not unless the healthcare industry makes out big time on the deal. Social programs will receive a little more dinero from the feds, but the wealth won't be redistributed in any significant way. The poor might have roofs over their heads, but not much else. The best we can hope for is decent Supreme Court judges.

But a better America? First check under my bed for that pot of gold.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a radical southern Italian queer atheist performer and writer with a website: avicollimecca.com