Dude, who f*$#ed with my country's defaults?

I remember a time when, in general, Democrats voted Democrat, and Republicans voted Republican. That was after all, why they registered for those particular parties. Those were the political defaults. (There was a large group of exceptions, like Catholics, Jews, Asians, middle class ethnic voters, etc who were often swayed to the vote on the other side, and many people from states with primaries registered so that they can vote in the primaries.)

Somehow in this election, everything changed. The default is not to vote for your party, but, at least for Democrats, the default is to vote against the other party. I understand defaults like that. For me, I like Coca Cola. I hate Pepsi. I would always choose Coke over Pepsi, but I would also choose camel urine over Pepsi. I am not just pro-Coke, but more anti-Pepsi. I have friends who behave similarly when it comes to baseball. They are ambivalent about the Mets, but they loathe the Yankees. Cest la vie.

Though I understand that these defaults exist, when it comes to politics, there is something very screwy when a country does not want to elect a leader, but its prime goal is to depose one. Deposing a leader leaves a vacuum. If Kerry fills that vacuum (which he will by default if he wins), then he will have a rather pathetic mandate. He will have gotten the vote of people ho couldn't care less who is in office as long as it is not Bush. As a leader, he will have little support from the ex-Deaniack Democrats who are apathetic, and mostly probably do not even know Kerry's first name, and he will not have the support of the Republican half of the country. No policy he will make will be worth anything to anyone.

If Kerry wants to plan for the future contingent possibility that he might win, he ought to try to get Americans to vote for him and what his party stands for. So far, no one knows what it is. He has distinguished himself but not being George bush, and every pronouncement from his mouth sounds the same. They are all along these lines: "George Bush said today that it was a really nice day. I say, that while the day is nice, we have to have reservations about the White House getting involved in recklessly addressing concerns that are way out of its domain, and not fully understood. Mr. Bush: Leave the weather alone." (Wild cheers follow.)

Kerry, I couldn't care less if you win or not. If you do, you will have the worst presidency ever, unless you distinguish yourself by who you are, not by who you aren't. Reset our country's defaults. Get people vote FOR a candidate, not AGAINST one.