This day has FINALLY come

I am so excited.

Today's one of those days. I am really feeling pretty good about it right now. I, however, am not a complete jack-ass as I remember feeling this way a tad on election day in 2004. I do believe this time is, and will be, different because Obama is not Kerry and it at least appears that America, in very general terms, have woken up a little. Perhaps.

It has been amazing to see this happen as I don't quite remember this level of fervor in '04; sure there was excitement and it wasn't as if 2004 was a dud election cycle. Today, though, I have people I have never heard say a word about politics suddenly come off like they host their own news show! It's marvelous! I have been paying attention to this baloney fairly closely since 9/11 and very often would lament that few around me really seemed to care, no one seemed to be paying attention, and no one really wanted to hear about it and would just roll their eyes and ignore me if I brought anything political up. Now, I have been told to vote by people left and right, I have had people tell me how naive my beliefs I don't have about Obama were, given book recommendations, blog recommendations and and so on. Marvelous, it is truly exciting as the eight year nightmare is in it's death throes and even if McCain somehow miracles his ass (or steals it like 2000) into the White House it still cannot be as bad as it has been these last eight years. Can it? IF McCain does win tonight though I worry about whether or not I can handle that again...Kerry's loss in 2004, despite his more or less uninspiring campaign, still stung nearly as bad and deeply as 9/11 without the 3,000 murders.

The one point of contention I have in this particular cycle is what I have been hearing from other "independents;" That same, tired old, "Lesser of two evils" thing. I know what is meant by that notion, I see what they mean and I even agree with them on most of the points during most elections but if you really think Obama is "evil" then I don't know what else to tell you. I mean, I support independent people too and was strongly considering voting for Nader again this year so if you are about voting your beliefs I think that's just great! I know Obama is no miracle, shit ain't going to magic itself right over night, we're not going to just see Iraq end, universal healthcare isn't going to suddenly appear and Socialism isn't suddenly going to take over the government and economy. This is history happening right before you and you need to do is simply mark a piece of paper to take part. A piece of paper that says, "I am interested in the best possible choice and potentially making this place look like America again!" rather than an empty gesture for a third party that, very sadly, won't even get near the 5% they need. I know this because I did that in 2000. Normally, I nod in agreement with that whole lesser of two evils ideal but this time, maybe for the first time, it may actually not be true. I mean this for THIS election, this particular time...Lets all vote third party next time!

I mean if you think everything the Democratic party and Barack say and stand for are evil then I can't help you. I myself don't like the complicit support of the abolition of the 4th amendment, I don't like that they cannot take a stronger stance on the current wars (so far), the bizarre support of ethanol, I don't really think some tax system changes are going to magic the economy back into non-panic areas and basically I find the Democrats, in general, to be boring and wishy-washy just to name a few things. Then again, when talking "liberals" you are always talking about herding cats. That said, Barack Obama is a really smart guy. He has not been as jaded by the Washington machine as he could be, he is not institutional, he is calm, mannered and by all accounts and appearances these last two plus years...IS NOT A LOON! He very likely will also appoint similar smart people in the cabinet and we may end up with a smart government, one that gets shit done and works well with the rest of the planet! After what we have been through what the fuck more do you want?!?!

What I am getting at is no matter what your core beliefs and values; why would you bother voting for the status quo? Yes, McCain is not Bush and all that but he is the party that has lead us most directly into the hole we are currently in and I find it really, really hard to believe Mr. Grandpa-Surly-Pants is capable of the demeanor and nuance we need in charge right now. At the very least, I am perfectly willing to take the risk, so to speak, on Barack's "inexperience." After all he won't be the first inexperienced President we have ever elected and I would be stunned if Barack turns out to be any where near as dumb as Dubya and Co. So, politicians are politicians and everything Obama says will not come to magical, wondrous reality and honestly he may be in for quite a roller coaster but why waste time, this time, on a third party or making your values and beliefs feel extra special when you mark your ballot this particular cycle? Get on the boat, man, this shit ain't about just YOU.

This is me talking here folks and I surely know something about both 3rd party voting (voting on my beliefs/values) and being brainwashed sheeple who are voting with "everyone else." If you think that about me then I cannot help you and I wonder if you are being unnecessarily stubborn in your own values and beliefs today. I ain't no Democrat and I also voted as many independents as I could in the lower ticket elections but I see no better candidate than Obama. In fact, I have never seen any other candidate ever that was better than Obama on any major ticket (fact is Nader is an awesome candidate in my mind but he is taken less seriously than supposedly fringe nuts like Kucinich and Ron Paul; who has supporters despite his no longer running for President?!?!) and for this political junkie that is saying a lot. You need not believe it but I am not sitting here trying to win you over because of some pie-in-the-sky, one-of-us-ness.

At any rate, this day I thought would never come, and which cannot pass fast enough, has finally arrived and despite the general election fatigue we all are experiencing, I do feel that I will miss all this noise and excitement once it ends. I will, I will miss all the news personality and the belief that something big is happening, and all the ridiculous accusations and crappy campaign tactics. Hell, I will even miss Sarah Palin! I have never seen a bigger maroon in public life in all my years and that is including every member of the Bush administration! She is the human version of a Disney ride....It would be like going to the Epcot Center and forming all of your ethical values and ideology based on the songs they sang. Some days I have wondered if she were simply functionally retarded others I wonder if she was built and programmed. Again, assuming they don't win (wonder what the follow up post will look like here if they do?), then she will be one of THE most amusing footnotes of general election history. Hopefully she will get a talk show or something because her mouth opens and comedy gold just spills out.

She has made me feel bad for all those Republican voters though, most of the ones I know are usually single issue voters who are either too racist, too into gun shit or abortion laws to be able to separate out much else and actually vote for their own interests. If you are not a rich, conservative, Christian person then why would you ever vote McCain? He hasn't been talking to you in this whole campaign! All his raising taxes fear rhetoric is aimed squarely at those making $200K plus a year and I don't know anyone who even comes near that income.

Do you really believe gun laws/abortion law outweigh the economy?

Illegal bullshit wars?

Not too worried about your children's futures are ya?

I mean some people simply like having a stubborn, impetuous crank in office so there go most of your McCain voters. It's simply sad that there are still this many people stuck in the 20th century. People that have sat and watched as the Palin-McCain "Desperate Express" basically resorted to name calling and never really presented any sort of action or plan for the future at all and you're telling me that I should be worried about Obama's pastor or some old professor on some committee Obama was on years and years ago?!? Are you out of your fucking mind?! Telling Obama supporters to be afraid, and that they are naive, and are "drinking the Kool-Aid" while racist fucktards are screaming "Terrorist" and "Kill him" in the back ground. Time to move on people and here lies my invitation to get on the bus. The NRA is full of fucking lobbyist fucking shit and you are drinking their Kool-Aid, or Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity's fucking paranoid, Muslim hating Kool-Aid, or maybe it's abortion and you are drinking down that particularly bitter, "You want to kill babies!" Kool-Aid.

Whatever it is, and I am sure if Obama wins we will start hearing all about it just like when Clinton was in office...The Republicans are really good at two things a) winning elections and b) being the bitchy minority party...and you can bitch and moan and make hypothetical arguments about how high your taxes would be if you happen to get rich "someday" or how all the women will be forced to have abortions and then they will come and take away all your guns and all that gawd damn, same old, fear monger, fucking bull shit they force feed you people. Point is, look long in the mirror and ask yourself if maybe you (my hypothetical and archetypal Republican voter) are the one who has been drinking this tired, proverbial Kool-Aid? Maybe your party thinks so little of you and your intelligence that they manipulate you with all of this fear; racial fear, gun losing fear, Islamic-non-Christianity-is-different fear that you have lost a little perspective. Quit pointing that finger and extolling beliefs and values that are founded in abstracts and start thinking a little about what we, as a nation, are going to do to get out of this fucking hole we are in. I think liberal, socialist, Marxist, Terrorist-Loving, Barack Hussein Obama said it best, in his elitist, secret Muslim, celebrity way:

"Despite what our opponents may claim, there are no real or fake parts of this country. There is no city or town that is more pro-America than anywhere else - we are one nation, all of us proud, all of us patriots. There are patriots who supported this war in Iraq and patriots who opposed it; patriots who believe in Democratic policies and those who believe in Republican policies. The men and women who serve on our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and Independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America - they have served the United States of America."

Yeah, what a fucking asshole. How dare he say elitist shit like that?!

His poll numbers and current probable win is, I believe, a result of our general populace being tired of the dirty tactics, jocular, competitive, purple band-aid wearing, retardedry we have been force fed these last 8 years...We have had it with that shit. It's why McCain's campaign has floundered as it has because that is all they had is stupid, bullshit, name calling most of which is unfounded and so freaking dumb I can barely put it to words...Kind of like Palin. Sure, it isn't just going to go away because now it will be the new undercurrent, conspiracy theories and so forth that we saw in the Clinton years. BUT I do think some of those, who may have thought that way at one time, have seen the light. They see the economy and the mess it is and they see that maybe these 'Atlas Shrugs' reading, greed-greed-greed, invisible hand of the market, Greenspan types have had their day and guess who's trickle down, the few-get-the-wealth-the-poor-fight-the-wars mentality philosophy will be going on the ineffective list? Theirs. Just like Freudian Psychology and thinking the Sun spins around the earth, evolution has come and gone and lots of us have moved on. I cordially invite the rest of you to do so too! It's neat, they have like big, flat screen TVs and XBox 360s here!