Presidential Debate (2012)

October 2012

I loitered at a tech event and met the co-founder of Twitter (Ev Williams). As I caught a cab back from the Faremont, Facebook indicated that Madison was at the Red Devil Lounge, a grungy, two story bar/concert hideaway with devilish red lighting. The girls were watching the Presidential Debate.

The telecast stank of cheap thrill reality television. Imagine a trashy open bar that mentally scarred people circled all day for entertainment. This was worse. Supposed leaders of the free world parried talking points of the dummest common denominator and threw not so metaphorical feces at each other.

The sparring wasn’t scripted, but it may as well have been. Each candidate minimally reflected on the actual question and quickly digressed into a premeditated frontal assault around the failures of an opponent.

The venture capitalist versus a scholar, the silver spoon duke against the social media tech innovator from Chicago's political middle class. The plot makes sense and so does the theater.

I am, non the less, disgusted with the absurd and carnal exploitation of the democratic process and more importantly the way everyone eats it up. The young, middle-class liberals yelled and hooted, proverbially foaming at the mouth from some satisfying headshot that a campaign strategist cooked in a back room.

Thankfully my friends were mostly interested in PBRs and people watching on a Tuesday. We followed up this shit show with a taco dinner and a lighthearted political discourse but more importantly, our plans for Halloween.