Can't I just sleep for 23 days?

2004-10-10 at 9:01 p.m.

First of all, now that I'm in the Pacific Time Zone, I won't have to wait up all night waiting for returns. Which, whew.

But second of all, I just want this shit done. Either I want Kerry to win, or I want to stop hoping he'll win. I either want to feel good that I won't have to see the troglodyte that is our (current) Vice President, or I want to start resigning myself to the fact that I'll have to put up with him for four years.

Does anyone really think that this mythological Undecided Voter is really going to come to any significant conclusions in the next 23 days that will force them to actually have an opinion? Does anyone really thing anything crucial is going to occur in these 23 days that will sway opinions much one way or the other?

I actually read a Vanity Fair article this past weekend (while on my ginormous car trip to Math Geekery) that put into words something I'd been thinking for a while.

Please note before I say this: I hate W. I think he's the worst kind of buffoon, the sort of Frat Boy Guy that I avoid at all costs in my real life, a guy who while not entirely brilliant ain't dumb either, but is more intellectually lazy because he can be, and that's the worst kind of lazy. I loathe--LOATHE--Cheney. I think he's the creepiest creeptastic man that ever creeped a creep. I think he's a balls out liar when it suits him, and it often does. I think he's been caught in enough lies that anyone with a brain could never in good conscious vote him into any kind of public office, much less one that's a heartbeat away from the Nuclear Football.

But.

I wonder what will happen to the political left over the next four years. If W wins? They have four years of building up strength based on the Bush hate. If Kerry wins? They have everything to lose.

The left really hasn't been in power in my lifetime. Rumor has it there was a democrat president in my early years, but I'm not sure I believe that gentle humanitarian with the southern accent has the cruelty that becoming president really requires.

There was this eight-year-island in my thirty years where there was a slightly slimy but very smooth playa in office who was a purported democrat. I think he was a good president, and it was nice (so nice!) to have a president that other countries took semi-seriously, but he really was more centrist than anything else.

So it's been a lifetime--literally--since the political left was strong and proud and, literally, left. As much as I don't want W to be president for four more long, painful, and punishing years, it'd be nice to see how strong a political movement I believe in could be.

Truth be told, though, I'm kind of tired of thinking about it. There's local stuff we're worrying about over here, too, like an attempt to amend Oregon's constitution to take away civil rights, and another attempt to bankrupt our local government further in the name of people who can afford to own property and at the expense of smart local planning (that one I just found out some friends may vote yes on, I need to figure out how to get them to vote no!).

I'm tired of stressing about how people I love may vote. I just want the vote to be done so I can start adjusting myself to the consequences.

One way or the other. Don't you agree?

6 people had something to say