[jesus_of_suburbia_old]

It spoofed the whole voting frenzy currently going on.

South Park Elementary had to choose a new mascot for their school. The choices were a giant douchebag or a turd sandwich. Stan didn't think there was a big difference in selecting a giant douche or a turd sanwich, so he decides not to vote. Everyone flips out at his decision. They try to explain the importance of voting in a democracy. During their attempts to get him to vote, Stan realizes that they only want him to vote if he does so for their candidate. P. Diddy and his crew show up at Stan's house and tell him about Puffy's "vote or die" campaign. Stan says he doesn't even know what the hell that slogan means. Puffy tells him it means exactly what it says, vote OR die. Puffy's crew pulls their weapons on him.

Stan is eventually banished from town. He is found in the woods by secluded group of PETA members who have sex with animals. The leader tells him that voting has been the same throughout American history. We have had either a turd sandwich or a giant douche to choose from. Giant douches and turd sandwiches are the only ones willing to kiss enough ass to actually get nominated.

Good stuff.

[Carlhole]

"a politician is an arse that everyone has sat on except a man"
-- e.e. cummings

[backstop]

jrob - While I too find South Park very funny, I don't see how that episode was "good stuff"

Think about it; those who see the futility of the present system are discouraged from voting, while those who have a financial stake in the status quo's inequity have no such lack of motivation.

This looks like an end result of fewer poor and working people bothering to vote.

In an election this close, that encouragement of a spurious chic of apathy may be all Wally Bush needs.

Did Stan just blow the election of a new president ?

regards,

Backstop

[jesus_of_suburbia_old]

I don't think they were criticizing the act of voting, as much as they were the current sideshow going on right now. The main themes of this espisode...

1) These celebrity campaigns, such as Puffy's "Vote or Die" or Springsteen's "Rock the Vote", aren't about getting people to vot because it is such an important right. They want people to vote so they will vote for a specific candidate.

2) This is election is essentially about selecting between a giant douche and a shit sandwich. Do you really blame anyone for not wanting to vote? I can, however, understand getting angry with these nitwits who have no idea what goes outside their personal life.

3) The history, or at least the current history, of this process has predominately been a choice between a giant douche and a shit sandwich. Very rarely does anyone who deserves to be president actually receive a nomination.

At the end of the episode, Stan discovers the truth of number three and does vote for the turd sandwich.

I don't live in a swing state. Therefore, I am not voting. I don't have to suffer the temporary nausea of punching the hole for Kerry. Barack Obama is also obliterating Alan Keyes by something like a forty-five points. Not only that, I like pissing off these "get out and vote" campaigns. They treat the youth like idiots. Granted, many of them are.

[backstop]

jrob - Maybe you don't yet get how a coercive hierachy works.

ONLY the one at the top has any significant potential freedom of decision.

The system weeds out those who show signs of refusing to respect the codes on their way up, so few who aspire to greater equity in society get anywhere near the top.

Should a presidential candidate show signs of such disruptive aspiration, his unavoidable involvement with the system on his way up can be used against him as a smear, and many young people (being as you say idiots) will fall for the lie, opt for defeatist apathy, and refrain from voting.

Thus a coercive hierarchy will maintain iyself if it's allowed to do so.

If the system effectively disenfranchises you in your own state, what about helping the 'get out the vote' effort in a neighbouring one ?

regards.

Backstop

[arocoun]

I wish I would have registered to vote, just so I could write in "I vote for nobody," or maybe even "I vote for myself."

Anyways, that episode was great.

[duff_beer_dragon]

The genius of South Park is way beyond politics.

''Shut up Mr. Hat, you b*tch!''