I attended a town hall-style meeting today with Senators McCain and Bayh. This was perhaps a mistake, as it was not nearly as interesting as I'd hoped. For my money, give me a good political lecture. The way to suck the life out of the room is to give every idiot a microphone and let him believe that his opinions matter. God, one of the questioners introduced himself as a raging pacifist. I think it would be really fun to start a fight with a pacifist. Like a fist fight. You know, see if idealism boy would fight back. I have no interest in real physical violence, it's just that I hate pacifists so much. They are so fucking misguided that it's incredible. My God, did these people learn noting from the Second World War? If the pacifists had had their way, the Third Reich would still be standing and there would not be a single Jew, Roma, or Slav alive in Europe. I love democracy only because it is the best system of governance thus far devised, not because of any inherent respect on my part for other people.

Still, it was fun to see Adam, an acquaintance of mine and dedicated liberal, be so happy to see as ardent a conservative as John McCain. Even as a Republican, I'm far more liberal than McCain. But you can't deny that the man's got something, a certain populist charisma. Except that he lost, because he did the same thing everybody does: he underestimated Bush. He let Bush goad him into breaking his own promise to avoid dirty campaigning; he let himself believe that Bush was as dumb as he let on. Fortunately for the country, the Democrats are going to keep making that mistake, both in this year's congressional races, and in 2004's big dance. Excellent.

"Your conscience may force you to vote Democratic, but deep down inside you want a cold-hearted Republican to cut taxes, brutalize criminals, and rule you like a king!"