Damn it, Dennis

The only candidate I would consider voting for with a relatively clear conscience decided to skip out of the Michigan primaries, the only chance to vote for Dennis Kucinich, as everyone keeps telling me he is not going to get the nomination (really?). So now the only people I can vote for in the primaries are Clinton, Dodd, and Gravel. Thanks, arbitrary Presidential primary process! Clearly, states and voters have had enough of the same states having an unfair influence on deciding the candidates every cycle, and need to have a serious discussion and revamping if we are going to have anything resembling a democracy in this country. It is bad enough that our Presidential election, electoral college, and partisan politics leads us to vote for politicians with nothing different between them, but we have the same overly-centralized parties overriding the will of the people to have more say in the leadership of their country. Shouldn't we be coming up with real solutions to these problems, like a rotation of beginning primary election states, and not be shutting out millions of people who actually want to be part of this charade of a democracy?

Decisions like this only work to alienate citizens and demonstrate that politicians are more concerned about raising money and staying on good terms with their party, not voters. While Kucinich may be passing by Michigan in order to save money, I would think that a campaign run only on principle and no realistic hope of victory would screw this partisan pecking order and reach out to Michigan. In a state that has many cities and towns that have undergone the same rust-belt affects of free trade policy, unemployment, and threats to unions as his hometown of Cleveland, I am greatly disappointed by his plan to boycott Michigan and people who can relate to his message and values. It makes me question his motives and dedication to his mission.

Oh well, losing faith in politicians because they yield to politics is nothing new. Its not like I will be able to express my disapproval of Kucinich with my symbolic primary vote, anyway. Who would have thought that I will most likely vote for Clinton, if I decide to vote, which I am questioning for the first time. Part of me wants to be really excited about the potential of voting for a female president, but if it voting for a woman president just to have a woman take on the same role and patterns of power as before, what is the point? Why does she have to be such a hawk, and a closeted one, at that! Every time I hear her give an unspirited, monotone "GOD BLESS YOU ALL" to an audience, I just want to scream, "you fucking liar, you aren't religious!" Give me that supposedly crazy liberal Hillary of the 90s, bad suits and hair and all. Give me the Hillary fighting for universal health care and not to bomb Iran and make Iraq the new South Korea. Women should not be excited about voting for a woman if she wants to continue the same foreign policies, tired arguments, and same mistakes as the men before her. She has to do more, or at least that is what we should expect.