Life's Persistent Questions

Which side to wear?

When I was 15, I slurged, or rather I bugged my mother so much, that she bought me a Starter(TM) San Francisco 49ers jacket. You remember those jackets back in the early 90's, they were all the rage. And this is not any Starters, it was REVERSABLE! It's Gold on one side, and Black on the other. It costed more than the one-sided, $150 I think, but it was neat. The problem was... I ended up wearing mostly the black side, because... well face it, black is much more tough-looking than gold--the same reason why most Raiders jackets are black instead of silver.

Earlier this year, I bought, with my own money, another reversible jacket. This time, it's leather on one side, but some other fabric on the other (hey, who am I, Carson from QEFSG?) But guess what, I ended up liking the non-leather side better, which sort of defeated the purpose of buying a leather jacket from Kenneth Cole in the first place.

I realized this morning that this presidential election is really like a reversible jacket. Bush and Kerry are really just two sides of the same jacket. What about Nader you ask? Well, if you want to wear a slick linen jacket in the middle of winter in Michigan, be my guest, but I wouldn't recommand it. It may look good, but it's not practical because it doesn't stand up to the harsh reality. Now back to our two Yalies. They really do have more in common than differences. Kerry's slipperieness in foreign policy will probably end up been similar to Bush's if, for nothing else, constrained by the Republican congress at home and hostile international climate abroad. And the economy has a mind of its own no matter who's the prez, with no disrespect to Clinton 42nd. And people will choose between either Bush or Kerry because they know behind the two men are tried-and-true political institutions that will keep the government moving. And why people choose one over the other? Just because. You like Bush? Because you have faith in him and in his unwavering core values. You like Kerry? Because you have faith in delivering his promise of not abandoning the war on terror. Can either belief in the candidate be rationally proven? Of course not. You are really just RED or BLUE person.

posted by hedgehog @ 10:56 AM