Sigh

I'm finding it difficult to work up any real enthusiasm for the November presidential election. I've been somewhat loosely following presidential politics for somewhat more than a decade now, and the one conclusion that I've come to is that whomever is in the White House only matters around the margins. Despite people constantly telling me that I'm better off because this person is President or I'm screwed because that person has been elected, when I look at the events that have happened in my life, and trace the decision trees back, I always find much more direct causes than the outcome of the last election - for President, for Congress or for dogcatcher, for that matter.

It doesn't help that I live in a solidly Blue state. Not because of the whole "any vote except for a Democrat doesn't count" thing, but because no-one's really interested in campaigning here. Sure, we'll see both President Obama and Governor Romney come to town - there's too much money in the area for them not to show up and put on their dog-and-pony shows. But the President's people take the state for granted, and the challenger's campaign has written it off as a loss.

So campaign season won't be particularly interesting, and the outcome won't really be noticeable. On the other hand, I'm learning more about political philosophy than I knew before, as I listed to pitches for (currently) hopeless third-party efforts.