I support Barack Obama - I don't support Barack Obama T-shirts

That's the best way I can think of putting it - this is something that has bothered me for a while. It's the same situation that we had during the primaries - Clinton vs. Obama: I recall vividly several large Hillary 08 signs hung proudly on Hedrick Summit dorm windows.

We don't care if you like Hillary or Obama, we don't care if you like Obama or McCain. We may agree or disagree with you - wanting to discuss actual issues is one thing, and we'll do it - but your Hillary bumper sticker and your Obama pins do nothing besides turn politics into a baseball game. A game where people blindly and unconditionally support one team. It's important to realize that even if one politician resonates deeply with you, he/she is still a politician. Obama isn't a messiah, he is a politician - he may help this country, but he certainly won't be saving the world. Our constitution revolves around the assumption that politicians are fallible, that we should keep their power in check - doesn't plastering their names across ourselves then become a little contrary to our ideals?

Some other political irritations swimming around in my head lately, as the election nears:

TV debates: If there's one thing that trivializes politics more than political candidate apparel it's these "presidential debates." And what's worse than the debates themselves is the people who remain undecided in late September, and watch the debates to decide. Do people honestly think that the debates reveal anything substantial about the candidates? The film Thank You for Smoking summarizes what these arguments generally become - some kind of bizarre speaking tournaments. America wants answers and we get them: who can dodge the questions the best, who can recall and regurgitate the lines they have rehearsed the best, and who can dodge the questions by turning them into opportunities to recall and regurgitate the best. I worry that people don't realize that public speaking is not really all that essential in being an effective president.

Sarah Palin: I'm deeply surprised whenever I am reminded that people actually support her. It's a shame, really - one of the most self-destructive things McCain could have done for the Republican party imaginable. Is it honestly not 100% apparent that this was a meager attempt to win the votes of a few disgrunted (and increadibly stupid) Hillary supporters? Do people actually think this was a long and calculated decision? It seems pretty clear to me that it was basically spur-of-the-moment; with all the controversy over her McCain was bound to have predicted some. Not to mention that she is completely unqualified and offensively stupid. Blatant pandering to small-town rural states, which despite their lower population allegedly constitute real America, her complete reversal on the bridge to nowhere, the whole Troopergate incident, claiming to be a role model for women while pro-life and making rape victims pay for rape kits... the list goes on.

Couric's questions weren't particularly brutal in her interview - what struck me was Palin's utter failure to answer them. Not failures to address the questions - dodging them is a trend among every politician - but failures to even cough up some nonsense to make herself sound good. This wasn't an elitist versus average Joe, it was a journalist versus a complete moron.

Controversy over proposition 8: It still boggles my mind that in a progressive 21st-century nation that this is even an issue. Proponents of 8 are always saying "Homosexuals already have all the rights that we do - allowing them to marry infringes upon our rights." I just have to ask - why do you think that knowing that homosexuals can marry somehow trivializes your own? The common argument is religious - it somehow diminishes the sanctity of the whole ordeal. Then I have to ask - why do Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, or anyone else who doesn't share your faith and marries anyway not defile the sanctity of your marriage?

I love those TV ads - "Gay marriage will be taught to your children! Yes on 8!" Heaven forbid public schools actually teach something. Why exactly should this be kept a secret, regardless of whether 8 is passed? How can you teach elementary school kids about bus boycotts, Martin Luther King Jr., or the Little Rock Nine without a little voice crying out in your subconscious - "Oh, by the way, gay people can't get married!"