So it can be hard to pump myself up about democracy but I really want to be! I get self-conscious about looking like I want to be a hero or some super advocate and I think that's ego winning out over vulnerability, and that's how I end up taking democracy for granted, because life is pretty good for me so what should I be rallying in the streets for, what do I have to say about anything? When shit was going down in Egypt and elections were finally being held, I cut out this quote:
"This is the first time I ever voted and I am really happy about it," said Mustapha Samir, a 21-year-old medical student. "For the first time in my life, people are not talking about soccer all the time, but about constitutional amendments, which means the country will have a different future than its past."
I kept it so that I will constantly ask myself 'why would a 21 year old be so stoked about voting? Why wasn't I stoked about voting?? What could be the alternative? All over the world people are putting their lives on hold to protest for days and weeks and some are dying to build the kind of engaged society I have been so indifferent about. What don't I get!! What kind of bubble am I in!?!?'
So I am fascinated with how people try to get other's politically motivated, and to care more. Or I guess that's what I'd want to see, but politicians arn't really trying to sell you the democratic process, they just want to amp you up enough to vote for them. So these Putin videos rock my world with thier shamelessness.
Feb 29, 2012 9:15am Creepy Putin Ads Aim to Woo ‘Virgin’ Voters By Kirit Radia
@KiritRadia_ABC
The Russian presidential election is heating up, and not just on the campaign trail.
A pair of sexually suggestive ads have appeared online urging first-time voters to choose Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the favorite to win Sunday’s vote.
In one of the slick videos, an attractive young woman is talking with her doctor about her “first time.”
Safety is important, the doctor stresses. “Perhaps I don’t need… it,” the girl says with a suggestive, yet hesitant pause.
The doctor’s orders are firm. “Yes you do,” he replies as he stamps her papers. “And it’s right that you want it for love. I totally support your choice.”
“Really?” the girl says, equal parts surprised and relieved.
The camera follows the doctor’s glance to a wall calendar featuring Putin. “With him it will be safe,” the doctor says. The girl smiles and appears relieved. In the next scene she is seen walking into a polling station and the slogan “Putin. The first time – just for love” appears on the screen.
In the second video another beautiful young girl is visiting a fortune teller and says that she, too, wants her first time to be for love.
“The cards will speak the truth,” the soothsayer says as she lays out tarot cards. “I see that it will be for love, and without deceit,” she says as the cards are revealed.
Then she flips over a card with Putin’s likeness on it and the girl gasps. “That’s him!” she whispers.
“You’ll be happy with him,” the fortune teller replies reassuringly, telling her she will be protected from everything this way.
The ending is the same, with the girl entering the polling station and the slogan on the screen, followed by a smiling picture of Putin.
The Moscow Times reports that it is unclear if the videos were serious or parodies.
Even so, this is not the first time sexual innuendo has crept into the Putin campaign. Last year a group of young Russian girls posted a video online promising to tear their clothes off for Putin (and suggesting they’ll tear up his opponents). Last summer a group of scantily-clad girls calling themselves Putin’s “army” washed Russian-made cars in support of the once and likely future Russian leader.