Same Old

I kept seeing commercials about the vice-presidential debate and something about it was getting on my nerves. This was beyond the usual stuff that gets on my nerves about politics. This was a kind of narrowing of the eyes, teeth on edge kind of thing. I finally figured it out.

The VPs are common. Both of them look like typical men running for president. In fact, for a lot of people, it's probably somewhat of a relief to see them because they look like what people normally assume presidential candidates would look like.

I don't like this. To me, it means that as much as our main candidates are unusual choices (even someone like Trump is unusual in  the grand scheme of things), the people they picked to be with them are just status quo. And that isn't to say anything about either man's ideas or actions. This is just about how presentation and expectation play a role on who we choose to vote for. Pick this dude. He's the safe choice.

It could be argued there is a matter of balance to consider here. I get that. I do. At the same time, I also believe that if you're going to shake things up, shake them up a lot. That shows promise. That shows guts.

Then again, since when was politics ever about promise or guts?