Hmm. This sounds vaguely like “false-consciousness” to me, Will. I say: you chose to start running again because you’re doing it for the nookie !

It drives me nuts.

- By choosing what is in your authentic interest
- By knowingly choosing to do something that will promote others’ authentic interests

Now, if you’re fairly well off, living a fairly comfortable life, then it’s probably true that your life is largely unaffected by which party is in power. But a lot of people’s lives are affected. For millions of people, which party has power could mean the difference between having health care or not, or between making just enough money to get by or making a little bit more, or between having the right to get married or not. For over a hundred thousand people, it has meant going overseas to fight a war in Iraq, for thousands of those it has meant serious injury, and for hundreds of them, death. It could make a difference in the rights, liberties, and prosperity of millions of people in the Middle East. I could go on.

Some people sincerely care about issues like these and vote based on what they value and what they believe the parties will do, even though these issues only have a minor, tangential effect on their self-interest. Others are tricked by rhetoric & advertising. And there’s a continuum between the two.

Politics may be more sensitive to false-consciousness-inducing salesmanship than commerce because the effects of politics are less clear and tangible. You can feel whether your shoes are comfortable, but it’s hard to tell whether Iraq really is becoming a democracy, or what Saddam would have done if we hadn’t taken him out, or what impact the changes in Iraq will have on the safety of the US.

I believe that Dems are more likely to do things like increasing the EITC and minimum wage, making the tax system more progressive, and creating policies that decrease the number of people without healthcare. I think that both history and the current proposals of the parties support my position (on the whole).

I also firmly believe that Kerry (or Gore) would not have declared war on Iraq had he been President. Certainly, the position that Kerry took on the war as a Senator is open to criticism, but I find it hard to believe that he would have chosen to fight that war if he were setting the agenda instead of just voting yes or no on it.

I don’t think that a Kerry presidency will whiten my teeth or help me sleep, but I think that it will have a significant benefit for the American populace (and many people outside America), especially compared with another Bush term.