Politics 2016

Attempting to cram over a year’s worth of political frustration into 13 minutes of video.

MUSIC:
My theme song is “Pluto Vs. Neptune” by Driftless Pony Club. You can buy their albums from DFTBA Records at http://www.dftba.com

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

[spoiler title=”Click here to expand and read the transcript”]Hello, Earthlings! You are watching Adam the Alien, and it is the final hour! It is the last minute! It down to the wire! And we are about to find out who is going to be the face of our country for the next four years.

All right, so I have wanted to talk politics this entire political season. But everything tends to go by just so frickin’ fast that, ah, by the time I think of something coherent to say, bam! We’re on to the next thing! We’re on to the next–next scandal! New scandal! New thing! Who do we hate today?

And that is one of the most frustrating things about politics in general, and especially this election cycle, is that people seem to think that it’s all about hating the other guy.

So obviously, from comments I’ve made in the past and anyone who follows me on any social network whatsoever, you all know I don’t like Trump. Not–not a fan.

And as many mean-spirited commenters accurately guessed (though in a way it was implied as an insult), I did and still do feel the Bern.

I’m not really happy with any of our choices this year.

As with every year, I examine all the candidates, including the third party candidates, and I’m just…I’m not impressed.

However, just because we don’t have a absolutely perfect candidate this year does not mean that every terrible thing is true, nor does it mean that society is about to collapse.

In my video about change –and I’m looking up the username right now– YouTube commenter ITz Cresint said that, ‘You should just endorse Hillary in your next video.”

All right. Let’s talk about Hillary, and our overall options for President.

First of all, it should be pointed out that I am only registered as a Democrat to participate in the primaries. I have always otherwise registered as independent. I do not like associating myself firmly with a party because I am absolutely disgusted by party-line voting, and people going, “OH, vote for the Democrat instead of the Republican! Vote for the Republican instead of the Democrat! Ahh! We must beat the other team!” And that’s…we’re talking about the future of our country, we’re not talking about a sport!

So let’s look at our primary four options. That’s right, I said four, because I’m not just gonna focus on two!

Let’s start with the Big No, and that is Trump.

Look, I get that he voices some of the frustration that some people have. However, the way in which he voices that frustration is appalling. And frankly, he IS the problem! he is corporate America! He is everything that has always bought politics. He’s just trying to get a more direct line. And frankly, I…I can’t listen to him talk without hearing every abusive person I’ve ever come across. I–he–he is identical to every lying, manipulative, abusive person that i’ve ever met!

Honestly, it has been terrible for my mental health to even listen to the man talk.

But especially at this stage in the game, nothing I can say –no impassioned plea, no lengthy, thought-out video– can convince anyone who’s voting for him to vote otherwise.

I just really, really hope you can see that–that as much as politicians lie, very few are as blatant about it as he is. He will flat-out say that he didn’t say something he said five minutes before!

All right, let’s move on to my next least favored choice, and that is Gary Johnson.

Gary Johnson doesn’t piss me off. He doesn’t. But I don’t like his views. Though I have many Libertarian friends, I am very anti-Libertarian.

Not the people, just the general stances. I don’t think they are good for us, or the country, or the world. While at first glance it seems great to say, “Hey, you do your thing, I do my thing, let’s all leave each other alone. Government, leave me alone! Everybody, leave me alone! Lets all just live our lives!” That seems nice, in theory. However, we don’t live in an isolated world.

The saying, “No man is an island” very much applies here, because everything we do impacts everyone around us, which impacts everything around them, which impacts everyone around them.

i do very strongly believe it is our responsibility to try to make the best world for everyone, and that entails, y’know, maybe compromising when it comes to, “Hey, sure, you can do you and I can do me, but maybe can you not start a toxic waste dump in your backyard,, right by the fence adjoining our property?”

That was a weird metaphor, I know. I’m really trying to rush through this video.

But I hope that kind of makes the point of–of…you can do you and I can do me, but it’s not going to change the fact that some of what you do is going to affect what I do, and some of what I do is going to affect what you do. So we’ve got to find a way for us both to live our lives without f**king each other up all the time.

And I just don’t think Libertarian philosophy or any of Gary Johnson’s views, can solve that complication.

And now we come down to the top two that I was looking at after Bernie did not win the Democratic nomination.

And as much as i would like to vote third party, coming in second is Jill Stein.

In 2012, I got to meet Jill Stein, spend some time walking around with her, and even got to very briefly interview her before she had to run off.

And though I do think she’s run a much more capable campaign this year than she did last time, I still…I just don’t believe she has it in her to be the President.

I want to. I really want to.

But I have severe doubts about her leadership ability, especially due to her lack of experience, but also, just seeing the way she interacts with some of her followers.

Now I want to make one thing clear: contrary to popular opinion, Jill Stein is not anti-vaccination. She’s not an anti-vaxxer. She’s very much in favor of vaccinations. That has been covered.

Buuuuuuut she does tend to answer questions posed by her followers in such a way that it indicates she is afraid to alienate them by answering that more bluntly.

So Jill, I’m sorry. I really, really wanted to vote for you, buuuut I can’t.

So then it comes down to: I could write in a protest vote, a Bernie Sanders vote, or i could do the thing I was trying to avoid right from the start and vote for Clinton.

I’m not a big believer in protest votes.

Now, I vote according to my conscience, and that includes a lot of complicated things. And there’s not a lot of room for protest votes in there. I look at candidates’ views, I look at all of the opposition, I look at every possible, conceivable thing that I can think of that might factor into a person’s presidency.

That includes Supreme Court votes, that includes who they’re running against, that includes polls, what it looks like the likely outcome is going to be, etc, etc, etc.

So I have taken heavy looks at Clinton.

And to be frank, as much as I had been convinced she was a vile, despicable human being, and as much as i still have difficulty trusting her, the worst i can say about her is that she is…a standard politician.

Even when it comes to all the God damn e-mail stuff, I gotta admit:at this point, I don’t care about the e-mails anymore. Because nothing has happened!

And to be honest, the only time I was really outraged about it was when I did not actually understand what was going on. I had not done the research yet.

I think it’s overly optimistic to brand her, as many have, as a Leslie Knope, the main character of Parks and Recreatoin.

That character always seemed very innocent to me, and Hillary…I do think she’s a more cunning strategist than a Leslie Knope type would be.

But then again, I haven’t seen all that much of Parks and Rec, so maybe I’m completely misjudging.

Over time, between doing my research, reading articles for and against, and just listening to people –listening to the supporters of Clinton, of Trump, of each candidate– I’ve come around to the idea that Clinton’s not as bad as I had thought.

She’s not perfect. She has done things wrong,.But a lot of the things that I thought she’d done wrong were often complete twists of the truth, or not true at all.

So that’s likely who I’m voting for., says the person who still has not filled out his ballot because I do believe that it is important to thoroughly research all of the items on the ballot.

And that is where we get to something far more important than the presidential circus show.

If all you’ve been paying attention to this entire time has been the presidential election, you f***ed up! I’m not gonna cushion that one. You f***ed up, and you know what? So did I.

I normally have done much more research on local issues by this point. I normally feel much more sure about all of my votes than I do now.

But I have been so distracted by “Who’s gonna sit in the big fancy oval office” that I have not paid NEARLY enough attention to aspects on my ballot for which my vote counts significantly more.

I constantly hear people talking about, “Oh, you’re vote doesn’t matter! Don’t bother. Don’t bother voting. It’s all a game.” And you know what, I’m not going to have that argument right now on the grand scale, on the presidential scale. Not gonna have that argument right now. Because the important thing, the aspect that can affect your daily life, are your local positions, your local measures, and if you’re not paying attention to those, what the F*** are you doing?

This is an angrier video than usual. Because frankly, I’m angry. I’m angry at myself, because all of the problems of politics? We can blame our leaders, we can blame presidents, we can blame senators, representatives, we can blame celebrities. But, you know, the problem in politics is us. It’s the voters. We are the biggest problem in politics.

We, the voters, are the problem when we don’t thoroughly research all of the issues.

We, the voters, are the problem when we don’t pay attention to what’s going on immediately around us.

We, the voters are the problem when –and we’ve all done it– we share stuff before we fact check it.

We, the voters, are the problem when we expect our politicians to be perfect.

No one is perfect. Not you, not me, not them!

We, the voters, are the problem when we turn politics into a team sport. And you can say, “Oh, they do that to manipulate us! They’re just trying to pit all of us against each other!” Well, okay, then why the f*** are you playing into their hands?

We are all at fault.

There are so many things i want to say in this video, so many things I do not have time to say.

I wish I’d made more videos this entire time. I wish I had made more videos addressing current events.

The closest i really got was writing a blog about looking for hopemakers.

I tried to make a video reading that blog out loud, actually, but it completely fell apart.

There’s a lot of frustration right now.

And in the coming days, there is going to be a lot more frustration no matter who wins at what scale of the government, or what measures pass. Somebody’s gonna be frustrated. And this year, I think a lot of people are.

So let’s do better next time.

Let’s stop playing politics of fear. “Vote for me, or that person wins! Vote for me or THAT person wins! Don’t vote third party, because then THAT person wins, or THAT person wins, and you don’t want that!”

Let’s all do our research and let’s talk to each other like fellow human beings.

Now, I had a lot of anger in this video. But I’ve never cut someone out of my life or unfriended them because of what they believed politically, or who they were voting for.

I think that kind of behavior is absolutely, one hundred percent disgusting! And again, that is why we, not the politicians, we are at fault for everything that is wrong with politics.

They can lie, they can manipulate, they can do all the things conspiracy theorists say they do, too.

But none of it would work if we didn’t encourage it.

So that brings this completely rambly last-minute politics video to an end. I’m disgusted with us all. I’m depressed about the state of politics. And I…I-I don’t know what to say anymore.

Except that I really, really hope we all do better next time.

So until next time, I remain Adam the Alien.

And in these coming days, I wish everyone good luck.

May we all…be better.

And may we all be better unto one another.

Hopefully you voted. If you haven’t and there’s still time, please do. And well see what happens. Fare thee well.[/spoiler]