I'm not an Obama girl. I'm not a Clinton girl. No, I'm also not an opt-out, third party voter, although at times the prospect seems appealing.

I am going to vote Democrat, no matter what, because I believe this election is too important to throw away on lofty and unachievable ideals, as much as I believe this country needs it. I just haven't chosen my guy (or girl).

How can this be? In a society where to be politically invested in your country's future to the degree that I am means to be following this circus of who said what about whom or whose donor did what, it may seem novel that these schoolyard tactics make my eyes glaze over in a bemused fog. But meanwhile, we are dealing with a surge of violence in Iraq, an historically irresponsible and corrosive administration encountering the dusk of its reign, and an ever more desperate conservative base eager to gain back the glory of its former majority rule. And while sticks and stones may break our bones, what happens when our backs are turned could have more long-lasting consequences.

As it stands right now, we all know which
Democratic candidate voted for the war, and which voted for the wall.
We know whose campaign team member played the race card and whose
fundraiser is currently being indicted. We have all been glued to every
version of each poll and we have kept abreast of every political
pundit's interpretation of those polls.

Yet how widely known is it that President Bush is in negotiation with Iraqi Prime Minister al-Maliki to lock in US military presence indefinitely beyond his presidential term? How many people are enraged with the new KBR rape case that has surfaced with terrifyingly grotesque details? Who, instead of tracking the latest poll on what Americans think of Hillary, is investigating the renewal of Blackwater's contract or the latest on the torture memo or the negotiations between the Bush administration and the House Intelligence Committee on telecom immunity?

Progressives have long acknowledged the consequences of how the Right introduced distraction issues like gay marriage and abortion to engage citizens in an emotionally irreconcilable diatribe while they funneled our tax money to an unfounded, corrupt and costly war, balked at constitutional foundations, and erased some of our empirically-established rights. Yet as the Democratic party becomes entangled in the web of inter-party horseracing, how many conservatives are chomping at the bit to capitalize on our distraction?

Tomorrow, General Petraeus will testify on the state of the war in Iraq. This comes in a context of an explosion of new sectarian violence, of new illuminations on the ways in which the corrosion and greed behind attitude and behavior of Petraeus and his colleagues contributed to an Army Colonel's suicide; of further scrutiny of the deplorable mental health services provided to our veterans; and of analysis of the ways in which every dollar spent in Iraq could have contributed to our infrastructure at home. Petraeus has proven in the past that the reality of facts such as these will not penetrate the facade of victory he will present, that it will take nothing less than the outcry of the public's demand for accountability to make him tell us the truth.

But my fear is that the public will be more preoccupied with the presence of the presidential candidates that any accountability for the testimonial propaganda that will undoubtedly spew forth from the General will go unenforced. And if that happens, something tells me that it will be just what the General has been counting on.

Join Progressive Future in getting involved with the issues, not the horserace.