On Political Rage

I've been thinking about my overreaction to anniesj's Secret Service encounter. The woman herself seems remarkably reasonable about the precise issues involved in her case; for example, she notes that threatening presidents, even in jest, is not all right, and that the only impact of the Patriot Act on her situation is the permanent FBI file she will now have. At first read, though, I assumed that the incident was a betrayal of civil liberties that could be directly blamed on John Ashcroft and George W. Bush, and freaked accordingly. (N.B. I still find it deeply disturbing that an LJ satire, however ill-advised, can provide someone with an FBI file -- but not worthy of the kind of panic I aimed at it yesterday.)

Why was I so upset? Why are we all so upset?

This year, this week especially, any intrusion of politics into our lives reads like another sign of Armageddon. The articles on voter registration fraud are piling up. The Patriot Act just observed its third anniversary. The war news is not improving. Each successive poll names a different winner of the presidential election, and constitutional theorists keep evolving progressively weirder projections of what might happen if there's a tie in the Electoral College. By now I believe completely and instinctively that George Bush and his cohort of leaders of the United States are evil, and any piece of evidence that seems to support that theory I immediately grab and wave about the rooftops.

Here's the catch: While rational evidence may suppport much of my feeling that Bush is a horrible president and does not deserve to be reinstated, what I feel about him and his presidency is not rational. In the words of Ron Suskind's NYT Mag article two weeks ago, my opinions are "faith-based", not "reality-based". On some level, I have faith that Bush is a villain, that the Republicans for Voldemort image traveling around the Web is in some sense accurate, and that everything wrong on our planet today is in some sense his fault.

This may be partially or mostly true. Nevertheless, I am bothered to realize that my political opinions are not entirely logical or reasoned. I would like to be rational. I would like my vote on Tuesday to be guided by a thoughtful choice rather than by incoherent rage.

I would also like to have an administration in power under whose leadership we as the United States of America can all be thoughtful and reasoned in our political choices. Sadly, it won't happen this year. We can dream, though. Obama for President.

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Also, you should all take a look at this prayer for voting written by Rabbi David Seidenberg; thank you for posting it, deborah_judge.