Democratic and Republican Jews Battle for Jewish Florida Voters with Jackie Mason and the Great Schlep

As some of you may know, there’s an election coming up in early November, when the good (and bad) people of the United States of America will have to decide who they want as their next president: John McCain or Barack Obama.

Because Florida is often such an important swing state in any election (think Bush-Gore 2000), and because Florida is filled with elderly Jewish voters, both campaigns are going after the state and the old Jews who live there quite vigorously. Joe Lieberman has been campaigning for McCain for months and now, some younger Jews from around the country are fighting back.

Over Columbus Day Weekend they are instituting The Great Schlep, which is designed to send thousands of Jewish youth to Florida to speak with their grandparents about why they should vote for Barack Obama. It’s an incredibly large, grassroots campaign that’s not affiliated with the Obama campaign but is a cause that has been taken up by young Jews who want their grandparents to know the facts about the candidates before voting (rather than thinking that Obama cavorts with Muslim terrorists as certain ads have led them to believe).

This Sarah Silverman video is on The Great Schlep homepage, and I’ve embedded it here for your viewing convenience:

Jackie Mason and the Republican Jewish Coalition responded with the following video, which isn’t as funny but it’s definitely got a point:

What do you think about this campaign? Are you participating? Do you know anyone who is? What did you think about the videos?

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What Are We Really Voting for This Election Season, Asks “Douche and Turd,” episode 808 of South Park

As we arrive at day 72 on our countdown to vote for the next president of the United States of America, we have to ask ourselves, What are we really voting for?

Some will say “CHANGE!” and some will say, “NOT BLACK PEOPLE!” but no matter what they say we’re presented with two choices that are likely to provide us, the American people, with very comparable outcomes. And this is what “Douche and Turd” is saying.

When South Park Elementary has to vote for a new school mascot, the boys think it will be funny to write in two ridiculous things: a giant douche and a turd sandwich. When there’s a run-off between these idiotic candidates, Stan just can’t figure out what the point of voting is and why he would even bother when the choice is going to be stupid, pointless, unable to be differentiated and nothing you’d want between two pieces of bread.

Now, of course, it must be noted that this episode was written and aired before the Bush v. Kerry election, when the two candidates had a lot more in common and America appeared a lot less in trouble. This election, admittedly, looks a little different.

To pose the more obvious observation of how the two candidates are different, one of them is white – much like John Kerry. Similar to John Kerry as well, one of them has actually served in the United States armed forces. But let’s take a quick peak at the bigger picture and remember that the two aren’t actually so different after all.

They are both members of one of America’s two big parties, the Republicans and the Democrats. Though one would like to convince you that the other spends more money or that they’re more “less-hand-in-government” as a political approach to governing, that’s crap. They’ll both spend a crapload of money; they’ll both interfere in your life in a way previously unprecedented in American history, and they’ll both provide us with rhetoric that is full of shit and excuses on a pretty regular basis. And then you can turn to The Daily Show to laugh at either of them as our country and its glory spin down the drain, only to be documented in 45 years when historians can finally be far enough away to recognize some identifiable patterns.

Gloomy, no? Do I really think it’s going to be that bad? I certainly hope not – but I will say that neither candidate has actually outlined in detail or demonstrated the executable-ness of any programs that will solve any of America’s many major problems. Though I hope this isn’t the downward sloping side of the America-on-top mountain (because I think we have a lot to offer the world by way of collective equality before no one is listening to us again), I do think that when historians look back in time and have to assess, neither candidate so far has differentiated himself enough in his actual planned execution (not just policy rhetoric) so as to make him any different from the other or cause this to be the presidency of change. That’s not to say it won’t be, but just that if we went forward with what’s been outlined so far, we wouldn’t see any tangible results because nothing is really being said.

I hope that come election day we’re voting for something other than a giant douche or a turd sandwich.

What do you think? Who will you be voting for? What did you think of this episode? Do you think it’s applicable to every presidential election or just every one before a black man got in there?

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