It's the Final Countdown

So here it is. After an extremely long primary, and a seemingly long general campaign, the election is nearly past. Certainly, we’ll have the week’s of recounts, and complaints, and political post-game coverage on every network, but for all intents and purposes, it will all be over in 36 hours. Oh, but what a long, strange trip it has been.

Where did it start? John McCain was trailing among all of the Republican candidates. When faced with the options of people who don’t believe in evolution, people who don’t believe in global warming, and people who believe in magic underwear, the Republicans said “I’ll take any of them over John McCain.” Unfortunately, as the fell all over each other to vote for the least qualified candidates, John McCain played the slow-but-steady tortoise and inched by to become the nominee. Meanwhile, the Democrats showed people what a real Democracy looks like, by letting every vote count in every state, keeping the race neck and neck between two historic candidates.

But it wasn’t all wine and roses. We were told that black people would only vote for a black candidate, and that women would only vote for a woman. We were told that to criticize a female candidate is sexist, while also being told that when women don’t get their way, they take their toys and go home. Republican tried to sow dissidence in the ranks of Democrats, all while their candidate did litte and said less.

Then, while calling Democrats sexist for choosing the male candidate over the female, they cynicaly chose their VP based almost entirely on her gender. The two conventions stood in stark contrast: The Democratic convention showing tremendous unity, with thousands of people from every corner of the nation, every race, age, ethnicity, lifestyle coming together and giving a platform for everyone to speak their mind; while the Republican convention allowed fewer speakers, and showed less varied views and faces. The Democratic Convention swung open their doors to 80,000 average Americans, while the Republican convention could barely fill it’s hall with it’s elites. The Democrats showed media savvy and showmanship, while the Republicans had a presentation worthy of a middle management convention, with barely the energy of a watch battery.

And then the past few months. As Barack Obama introduced himself to more and more of America, and more and more of America came to know the real John McCain, the numbers shifted. In every one of the last 159 polls, Barack Obama has been in the lead; sometimes by 2 points, often by a dozen. In desperation, John McCain went 100% negative, lobbing accusations of “socialist” and “terrorist-sympathiser” through a bullhorn, while quietly admiting to reporters that he didn’t really believe these things. In interviews, he spoke of denouncing the hate-speech of his supporters, while at his rallies he neither stopped them nor gave any indication that he disapproved. Actually, no, one time he stopped a woman called Barack an Arab by saying that he, John McCain, thought Barack was a decent man. Yes, he didn’t say that Barack wasn’t an Arab, he just said that he wasn’t evil like, he implied, all other arabs are. Barack Obama has praised John McCain for his service both in the Navy and in the Senate, while the best John McCain can muster is to call Barack “decent.”

After all of this, our country is more polarized than it’s even been under George W. Bush, between two camps of people in this country: those that want to keep the ever-worsening status quo, and those striving for the America we want and not simply the America we have. If John McCain were to win tomorrow, what it would tell us is that despite 80 percent of Americans thinking we’re on the wrong track, and despite economic policies that have hurt our nation, and despite a foreign policy that has damaged our reputation and put our country’s security at risk, that we would rather play to the politics of fear and derision than get over our national bigotry. If Barack Obama wins, I’m certain there will be many crazy people awaiting armageddon, much like they did with Y2K or when the first gay couple married in Massachusetts, but when a week or a month or a year passes without the end of the world, they’ll quietly return to their subtle, silent racism. They’ll go home to their cleaner air, their new jobs, their social safety net, and their America that once again stands proudly as a city on a hill. Sure, they’ll decry every decision President Obama makes, they will speak ill of his policies, and look for any opportunity to knock him down a peg, never admiting they were wrong to think he was a spy, a terrorist, a secret muslim, a dangerous fanatic, or a marxist bent on destroying America. And, we won’t ask them too. We will rise above the poltiics of hate, and even if they never come, they’ll be invited to the party we’ll be having. We’ll have the government we chose, and once again they’ll be working for the people and not for the few. 8 years from now, maybe people will again become complacent and forget just how bad things were before the Obama administration, and they’ll be tricked into voting for whoever the Republicans have nominated (and no, it will not be Palin, not if they want to win). For now though, this is our chance to right the many wrongs that have be done to our nation these last 8 years. I, for one, like our odds.