So, it turns out I was really wrong about that guy. It is still a bit heartbreaking that someone could look at a person like that and yet it meant nothing. Lesson learned, I suppose. Instead of dwelling on the impossibility of men, let’s talk about politics, shall we?

Perhaps I was just naive or we as a country were, but when I was younger it did not seem like political parties would so brazenly lie to the public. It felt like they would think twice about flooding the media with misinformation in an attempt to obfuscate their own misdeeds. It seemed like the media was truly concerned about ferreting out truths and not just mastering the razzle dazzle of soft journalism. I wonder if Watergate would even have been found out today, or if Nixon would have been able to effectively spin his way out of it.

However, I know politicians have always lied, so perhaps I am nostalgic for politicos who respected our democracy enough to bother to do it well. Or perhaps I miss politicians who, at the very least, possessed a strong enough grasp of the elements at play to effectively manipulate perception. How cynical is that?

For eight long years, we have had someone in office who has arrogantly flouted his responsibilities to all the American people, and not just his corporate cronies or the people who voted for him. We have had someone who is too obtuse and too proudly incurious to comprehend fully the issues with which he must grapple or the human lives in his charge. Is there anything more galling than being condescended to by an idiot? This is a man who celebrates his bizarrely simplistic thinking. This is a man who has spent most of his two terms on vacation.

Regardless of the outcome of this election, I just want to thank Barack for signaling the possibility of a new kind of politics.