If you were wondering, I’m not one of those people who’s happy about this primary becoming a “good long discussion,” particularly because the only things being discussed are the infamous Reverend Wright, and the fact that “something just bothers” people about Clinton. (Surely, it has nothing to do with her being a powerful woman.) People who were ready to vote Democrat if a dog was put on the ballot are now willing to vote for John McCain if their candidate loses. McCain!

It’s hard to find political differences between the candidates. The Web site www.maplight.org offers insight into the financial backing of candidates, and the two candidates’ top five donor categories read basically the same. Clinton’s top five are law firms, retirees, general commerce, investment companies and education. For Obama, the top five are law firms, general commerce, retirees, education and investment companies. I’ll tell you one thing — retirees and investment companies are going to be very upset when Obama wins.

The all-important voting record is another area where both of our primary candidates are boringly similar. While they might diverge on an individual issue, rarely do they diverge by much. Everyone’s talking about the nuances of their health care plans, but consider this: Whatever the president tries (or doesn’t) to change, Congress and the Supreme Court can potentially challenge and force a compromise. Likewise, Obama and Clinton are both politicians and — as an absolute rule that defies any slick new-politics image, no matter what, even for “liberal” Democrats — are filthy, shameless liars. Considering how either plan would change, do we really care about the minor details? The important thing is that they’ll both be more socialized than whatever McCain would try to pull.

Speaking of McCain, I can almost guarantee he will get more votes than predicted. Time and time again, the “experts” underestimate the power of the American public’s racism and sexism (mostly because we hate being told just how prejudiced we are, and no “expert” could keep his job after holding our eyes to the light). Elections about racial issues, or involving a minority candidate, demonstrate that nothing motivates your base like the fear that a minority might get power. Remember Proposal 2 in 2006? I’m not saying you’re automatically prejudiced if you’re against affirmative action (wrong, but not prejudiced), just pointing out that pre-election polls expected the measure to fail, and that white male voters came out of the woodwork to make sure it didn’t. Rudy Giuliani’s first successful campaign for mayor of New York City was another example of subtle racial triggers igniting a massive voting bloc (he’ll put a stop to the squeegee men, unlike the current black mayor!). He subsequently rewarded his base with the bullet-ridden corpse of Amadou Diallo – oh, but that wasn’t his fault.

This hidden race vote is what scares me. Combine it with the severe damage that’s already been sustained by both of the Democrats in a vicious, marathon primary season (they’re both running on, at most, half as much sleep as McCain’s getting), as well as the possibility that Clinton will sell out the party when Obama wins, and suddenly it doesn’t seem like a “Democrat year” any more.

The whole point of all this is that we’ve wasted so much time, money and attention on a fight between political clones. It would be one thing if the electorate had been polarized from the start, but that wasn’t how it was. We’ve clearly demonstrated that we’re easily distracted by shiny attack ads and pretty health care plans, while a political battle has been completely stripped of any ideological meaning. The stakes are almost meaningless to anyone who actually cares about how the country fares.

Joel Reinstein is a State News columnist. Reach him at reinste5@msu.edu .