Thank God for Election Day

The build-up to the freaking election took fooooooorever. It seriously needed to end. I have a lot of faith that Obama has the ability to lead this country in a new direction, but if his people called or emailed me one more time I was ready to say 'fuck it' and go vote for McCain. I've been jaded by politics, not gonna lie. When I vote I tend to vote for the lesser of two evils. I refuse to believe that there are any completely honest politicians out there, even President Obama. Everyone has an agenda and a paper trail. You can't become president of the United States without scratching a few backs. It's a shame it's gotten to this point for me, and if I had to blame the one thing about politics that completely turns me off it's the constant negative attack ads and the derisive propaganda. Look, instead of telling me how bad your opponent is why don't you tell me your actual fucking policies? Are we, as voters, so stupid now that we no longer respond to what you actually plan to do? Evidently politicians truly believe that the only way they can get to us is by telling us how awful and bad for America their opponents are. And honestly, can we say that they are really wrong in believing this?

How many people voted based on the candidates actual policies? I'm sure tons of people voted for Obama or McCain simply based on their race. Others voted based simply on party affiliation. How many people actually know the differences between the issues presented by Obama and McCain? Neither one has given us anything concrete to contemplate. Both will 'fix the economy.' Each will 'end the war.' Um...is it too much for you to tell us how exactly?

Ultimately the choice of Palin back-fired on McCain. It was a risk, though, that he had to take. He knew he was behind Obama and he needed to make a radical push to get disillusioned women voters, ultra-conservatives that saw him as too liberal, and the un-decided voters. At first Palin created a hell of a buzz. A female vice-president?! Then....she opened her mouth. I don't know if it's possible to calculate how much damage the Katie Couric interview did to the Republican party. I'm fine with people being religious, but I take issue with anyone who takes the Bible that literally. If our vice-president truly believed that dinosaurs and humans walked at the same time - well I'm just not okay with that. It's preposterous, and Palin lost the confidence of any reasonable person. Throw in her ridiculous views on abortion (sorry you got raped - enjoy the baby!) and her complete lack of foreign experience (when did she get a passport? like 2 months ago?) and it was clear that she was barely qualified to cook me a hot dog let alone be in a high political position. Also, a presidential term takes a toll on the president. Look at Clinton and Bush before and after their terms ended. They look like they aged 25 years. McCain's already in his 70s. The odds of him surviving the daily stresses of his entire term were decidedly not good. And if he died in office that means Palin would've taken over. I don't fucking think so. If she took over as the leader of this country I would've moved to Europe.

Honestly, I really like John McCain as a person. If it was him against Hillary or him against Kerry, McCain probably would've gotten my support. What repuled me was when McCain basically sold his soul to the Christian right. I mean, he had to, but what about your ideals man? Politics is all about compromise but that's a bit much to me. Would you behave the same way in office? In exchange for Iran not bombing Israel we let them kill student protesters. I'm not cool with that. Members of the Christian right are no different than fundamental Muslims in my opinion, and I can't trust anyone that seems to be-friend them in exchange for favors. These are the same people that support blowing up abortion clinics and killing hundreds of innocent people in order to save lives. They're fucking hypocrites. We NEED to keep religion out of politics, and I'm not confident either McCain or Palin would've done so. That being said, McCain needs to be congratulated on his concession speech. It was beautifully delivered and heartfelt - the very thing that made McCain so popular in the first place, but a key facet of his personality that he seemed to lose as the race went on. McCain is an idealist and ultimately he was just not genuinely slimy enough to do what needed to be done to win the Republicans the presidency. It's hard not to respect McCain for all he's done. His campaign may have been a bit mis-guided but I don't think that's a true representation of him as a person. Obama has talked about unifying the red and blue states; well, giving McCain a post somewhere within your regime would be a great way to start.

With The Phillies winning the World Series a mere seven days ago, and Obama winning the presidency only 6 days later, I think it's safe to say I have a new found faith in the world. I never thought the I'd see the day Philly won a championship and I never figured America would be able to suppress their racist, fearful nature long enough to elect an African-American president. But they both succeeded. So good job Phillies, good job Obama, and good job America. I may tend to be cynical towards the American public - we're fat, spoiled, de-value education, take freedoms for granted, have some sort of bizarre fascination with violence - but they showed me yesterday. They did what I truly believe was best for this country. Racism is not dead but this is a huge step forward. As the older generations were dying off it was time for my generation to step forward and claim their rightful place on the throne of American politics, and we did not disappoint. Apathy be damned. This is our country now and fuck you if we're not having our say. This is a true paradigm shift, one which America sorely needed. So we embark on a new phase of American and world history, one that will place Barack Obama, an African-American, in the forefront. As evidenced by the late night gatherings in cities across the country, he means a lot to a ton of people, and I do not think he will disappoint us. The economy may be failing us, the polar ice caps may be melting, we may be engaged in who knows how many wars, but there's hope that we will survive all of that. For the first time in who knows how long, it's truly exciting to be an American.