Undecided voters

[ciphergoth]

David Sedaris on undecided voters:

I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?

To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

(nb the rest of the article isn't as funny)

Comments

[lovingboth]

In reality, most people who say they're 'undecided' are either too polite to tell you they're voting for the nasty party/person (so it was the Tories in the 1990s here) or aren't going to vote. One would hope that they're being asked how they voted last time, for example.

And some of this stuff strays into 'you'd be stupid to vote for McCain' territory...

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

But it is stupid of them to vote for McCain in the vast majority of cases. Obviously our candidates can't say this out loud, but there's no reason we shouldn't.

I'm not saying they're stupid people, but it's a stupid vote.

[lovingboth]

Depends on your priorities.

Look at how many gay men voted for Thatcher, even after s28, because they saw money as more important ('after all homophobia only happens to poor people'). Similarly with how many gay men worked for Reagan's re-election campaign, even as they were dying of Aids and he did less than nothing about the epidemic.

You think it's a stupid vote, I think it's a stupid vote, but it is saying they're stupid. Not everyone who voted for GWB is stupid, for example.

It strikes me that a good person to talk to about this would be Matthew Parris.