God I hate election years, especially presidential election years. It seems that ever since Regan was in the White House, our presidential elections have turned into mass marketing style over substance campaigns. Every election cycle the political advertisements become more and more like beer advertisements (and I'm not talking about Sam Adams).
Each candidate will brand themselves, as bold, leader-like, and radically different from each other. But compare their voting records, the plans they propose, cabinet nominations and sometimes even direct quotes and the story changes, just like with BMC beer (Bud, Miller, Coors). You can ask anyone what their favorite is, and they'll swear up and down they can separate it from the others. And if they have their eyes open, they can. But put a blind fold on them and watch the hilarity ensue. 9 times out of 10, they can't tell the difference. And the same holds true for your big party political candidates these days.
And just like big brewed beer, big party politicians rarely deliver on all their marketing hype. They'll do just enough to get you drunk and have you keep on buying (or voting) for them as long as they can. Now if that's all you want in a beer (or leader), fine. You're a free person and if you feel comfortable with the average and the plain that's entirely up to you. But don't sit there and extoll these supposed virtues and differences when you're one blindfold away for a different label for the same product.
Despite all this however, I'm optimistic about the future, both for beer and national politics. As my generation comes to age, a good portion of us aren't settling for mediocrity in our products. It's this reason that made the Boston Beer Company (the Sam Adams brewers) the largest brewery in America, with the tried and true Yuengling as the 2nd. And the political spectrum is changing too. Presidential candidates such as Ron Paul, Ross Perot, Gary Johnson, and Ralph Nader are becoming more and more popular. Whether you agree with them or not, I'm not hear to say, but you can't argue they're anything but different from the typical political spectrum. This is what the new America wants, what MY America wants. And I think it's about damn time too.
