Back in March, I wrote a couple of blog posts about the Republican presidential primary for the US. If you'd asked me then, I probably would have expected I'd write a lot more about that election. But as the months have passed, I've found myself pretty uninterested in the whole affair.
You might say that's not too strange, since as a Brit I don't get to vote. But the 2004 and 2008 elections grabbed my attention throughout the whole messy campaign. Of course, I was living in the US back then; but I wasn't in a swing state and saw few adverts or other campaign literature. I wasn't watching the national news, but looking things up online. I went out of my way to get information, especially in 2008. This time around I find it hard to care.
It's not as if there's nothing at stake. True, as a hard lefty Obama has been a disappointment. He campaigned on closing Guantanamo, and didn't; ran on a public option health care plan, only to ultimately pass something barely any different from McCain's proposal; had to be dragged to ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell; continues to support extra-judicial killings and the use of drone weapons against civilian targets. But his economic policies, while flawed, have aimed at fairness; and Romney's nomination of Ryan as his running mate shows the anti-science, anti-gay, anti-women position of the mainstream Republican party these days.
So why don't I care? Perhaps it is simply the sad fact that it is easier to be motivated against someone or something than for it. Bush and Cheney have been gone for four years, and have retreated off to enjoy their wealth free from the war crimes trials they deserve. They can no longer serve as convenient targets. That leaves either a fear of Romney, or a favour of Obama, neither of which is working that well.
Still, now that I'm in Australia, perhaps I should start gearing up for the next Oz election. According to Wiki, it's sometime in the next 14 months.
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