The transcript goes something like this:

ME: Hello?

CALLER: Hello, Mr. Rubin, this is [name redacted] from the [political organization redacted]. As I’m sure you know this is a tough election year and–”

ME: Let me stop you right there. I’m not taking calls from political campaigns.

CALLER: I understand, Mr. Rubin, and I won’t take up much of your time. You’ve given generously to [political campaign redacted] in the past and I–”

ME: I’m sorry to interrupt you again, but I’m no longer taking calls from political campaigns. Good luck with your efforts and sorry for hanging up on you.

Click.

The thing is, you can no longer open your eyes without seeing some kind of political advertising. It gets worse every year and thank goodness that I no longer watch television or I might go out of my mind. Thank goodness I have satellite radio or I might go bonkers listening to the political ads. Open a newspaper: politics. Read a blog: politics. Browse your Twitter stream: politics. It would be one thing if the ads were in the form of: here is what I did/will do to improve things instead of here is what the other fellow will do to fuck them up. The way we hotly debate political topics in public forums today remind me of the way we debated philosophy (or pretty much anything) as naive college freshmen. We focus only on edge cases. We get overly emotional. We talk and we don’t listen. We think our clever arguments are unique. Well, I’m tired of listening, but no because I don’t like the arguments being made (although, generally, I don’t). I just want a vacation from it all.

And while I hate to say it because I’ve tried very hard over the last ten years to gather in my sometimes unmanageably large ego: I don’t need anyone to explain the “issues” to me. I don’t need the person on the phone pitching their own narrow view like some snake oil salesperson. I don’t need the editorial columns. I don’t need the character assassination spots because, well, I have a brain and a higher-than-average IQ, and I can think for myself. Okay, there, I said it. I may not be setting records as a science fiction writer, or software developer, or blogger, or technology specialist, but I’m a pretty smart guy. I can see the logical flaws that crop up in nearly every ad. I know an ad hominem attack when I see one.

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Over the last few years, the bickering in Congress has pretty much ruined politics for me. Not long ago, I got a call from the Democratic fund-raising machinery asking me for money. I’ve given them money in the past, but I refused to do it this time. When asked why, I told them that I was fed up with how both sides did nothing but bicker and point the finger. I wasn’t going to give another dime until I saw some real leadership. Naturally, the fellow on the phone bickered with me, but I held firm.

It’s been so bad that I’ve really just tried to stay away from the news. Of course, you can’t stay completely away from it. So just a few observations, at least one of which contains profanity, which I don’t normally use, but which I am compelled to use out of pure frustration.

1. Maryland has legalized gay marriage and that is awesome. On the other hand, it is a shame that people must still fight for rights that should be available to everyone. I shudder to imagine what future generations will think of us when they learn that there were people opposed to gay marriage.
2. Rush Limbaugh is a dick. But come on, we all knew this. This is not news. He’s a hypocrite, too. He calls a student activist testifying before Congress a slut and a prostitute? Really? And now even some Republican leaders are distancing themselves from him. Look, let’s face it, Limbaugh gets paid to make waves. His behavior is meretricious. It’s exactly what I’d expect from him.
3. Big government vs. small government? How about just a government that, you know, governs for a change. I know three-year-olds who could run the country better than the current leadership. They are great at name calling, great at issue-dodging, great at raising money. But they suck at leading. I try to avoid being an “issue-voter” but I swear I’m on the verge of voting for the first person in my district, regardless of affiliation, who stands up and says, “No more pointing fingers. We’ve got problems. Who created them is immaterial. My job as your leader is to lead us through them, and try to solve them as best as we can.” But my gut tells me if I voted based on that issue, there’d be no one on the ballot.

It seems to me our biggest problem is that we lack leaders. They’ve been traded in for career politicians. A career politician can never be a leader: their career comes first. Now, it might be argued that these folks are leaders and career politicians, that the two are not mutually exclusive. But being a leader takes courage and all I’ve seen is the most cowardly bunch of politicians ever to take oaths of office, as far as I can tell.

If it were as easy to raise courage as it is to raise campaign funds, we’d be in good shape. Forget the oil crisis, we seem to be in the midst of a backbone shortage.

Comments closed on this one because I’m not in the mood to debate. Just venting steam here, folks.

At this point, I’d be happy to trade in my $1,000 tax break for a new Congress. One that, you know, has something resembling a spine running down its back and guts that aren’t quite so yellow. One that makes it clear they do what’s best for the people and not what’s best for the next election.

That would certainly be worth $1,000 to me.

I remember a graph from my political science days which had security on one axis (low to high) and freedom on the other (low to high).  As security increases, freedoms necessarily decrease and vice versa. I was thinking of this as I read that President Obama will sign the Levin/McCain detention bill into law. This is yet another disappointing example of where we seem to value security far more than our freedoms. It makes no sense to me. We are a nation built on freedoms and established in part to get away from persecution without a trial. And yet here we are making laws that allow for just that very thing, all in the name of security.

It seems to me that these kinds of laws are victories for those who oppose the freedoms that we have. I’m really starting to get sick of this. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d prefer a more reasonable balance between security and freedom. We encounter risks every day we are alive. I for one would prefer to live in a world where the risks for my personal security might be higher if that means more personal freedom. It seems that we are slowly evolving to a world which looks gloomily dystopian. I wouldn’t want to live in such a world. Maybe it won’t come to that in my lifetime, but I wouldn’t want my kids to have to live in such a restrictive, paranoid, and backwards world either.

It’s one thing to be vigilant about security. It’s quite another to cough up hard-earned freedoms without so much as a cry of despair. Indeed, it seems to me that more an more we give up these freedoms willingly, gladly, and will continue to do so until the day we realize we’ve given up everything we’ve ever valued and find it very difficult to get them back. We are becoming, much like our politicians, a nation of cowards, afraid of our own shadow and its horrifying to watch.

Maybe New Hampshire’s got it right: Live free or die.