Does anyone else really hate this election?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

A rhetorical question, of course. This is a deeply insipid and uninspiring election. Most people would accept this, I think, and those that think otherwise are the sort of people who are not worth listening to, except for ironic amusement.

Let's take this complaint a little further and wonder why.

Fundamentally, Obama has been a failure as President especially on (oh dear) his own terms. That distinctive agenda of national rebirth through civic liberalism and technocratic reforms is so dead that it isn't even possible to take it even slightly seriously now. He's not been much better in other areas: the various inevitable crises (which have, in fairness, been worse than 'usual') and set-piece political confrontations have essentially exposed him as a vacuous windbag with poor administrative skills and a woeful lack of political nous. Supposedly a 'reformer', Obama's record of 'reform' is hilariously threadbare and all attempts to claim otherwise are products of deluded minds. Unlike most recent Presidents he hasn't been actively harmful, but he's still a joke. A lack of enthusiasm regarding his re-election campaign is therefore inevitable.

Romney is something different. Not so much a pathetic joke as a piece of unpleasant postmodern satire: in every respect (background, policies, hair, pathological lying, the fact that he's an obvious sociopath, etc) he is actually the stock American President from TV thrillers made in all countries that do not fly the Stars and Stripes. Anyone expecting him to achieve anything of non-evil note is deluded and needs to snap out of it, else feel like an absolute numpty (the greatest word given to the world by Scotland) in a few years time. A lack of enthusiasm regarding his election campaign is therefore inevitable.

So far, so predictable. Both candidates suck. Blah, blah, blah. Yet here we (or rather: you. Yet still we, I think... to an extent) are. How on earth is this possible in a country with such strong democratic traditions and such an absolute faith in democracy as a concept?

The answers to that are obvious, of course, but it's still worth posing the question.

Last time I checked, Romney is not an 'obvious sociopath', so unless you A.Have a degree in psychology and B.Have personally evaluated the man, you should refrain from such ugly remarks. He seems to be to be a decent guy that loves his family, however hideous a candidate he is. His public persona has nothing to do with his actual personality, of which we know nothing of.

The fact that his public persona doesn't really connect to something that could be an actual personality in any obvious way is itself, I think, somewhat worrying.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Your question reminds me of something that happened in undergraduate school, in a class called "European Intellectual History".  The professor was a great one (so, naturally, he didn't get tenure), but one day in class -- a class of about 35 students -- he said "Americans are anti-intellectual".  I quickly shot back, "That's because intellectuals are anti-American".  He stopped, stunned, then after standing there thinking about it for a minute, admitted I was right.

The fish I caught the other day was twenty foot long.

So you're calling me a liar?  OK, that's ... deep thinking for you.

It requires no depth from anyone to see through that story... Again, better trolls please.

If true, it would explain why the professor didn't get tenure, since the anecdote demonstrates a ridiculously facile and timid understanding of the universe all around.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I've noted that the people most likely to have those "Question Authority" stickers on their bumpers are also the least likely to do it.

They're the kids who sat up in front of the classes and when the professor entered, straightened themselves in their chairs and smiled:

"We're all in our places with bright shining faces!"
"Tell us what we need for the test and we'll forget about the rest!"

To put it mildly, I wasn't among their number.

The same little turds are the ones most likely to disbelieve that anyone else ever did whatever they were too afraid to dare.

Academic authority at the university level often concerns itself with questioning other types of authority, bro. It's kind of what it's known for in the current civilization.