I Dread Next Week
Not for the reasons you might think. Yes, it was insufferable when Bill Clinton was elected in 1992; everyone around me -- I was working in a television production company, so yes, Virginia, everyone around me -- was walking on air. The world was saved and order was restored to the Universe. We see how that all turned out. This time I'm told the oceans will recede, the polar bears will eat, and there will finally be peace in the middle east.No, what I really dread about next week are all the sanctimonious Germans, who have already started coming out of the woodwork to tell me how they can't understand why America can't pull its head out of its posterity and do elections right ... you know, the way they do them here in Germany. Granted, the Germans have had a relatively good run of elections in the recent past, but at some point I grow weary of the piety and find myself ending the conversation with a weary reminder that German electoral history also included 1933.
I might suggest that since a number of people in the US insist that it is discriminatory to require ID to vote that maybe we could have people dip their fingers in purple ink, just like we required of the Iraquis. But that seems to have been made moot with early voting, which allows people a couple days to get home and wash off the ink before queuing up to vote again on the real election day.
In my personal view, early voting is evil as it only serves to open the door to cheating. So, as if to throw gas on the fire, what does Mr. Bush do for this election? He votes early and absent. What leadership. Perhaps for that last spit in the face of the republic, the Republicans truly deserve to wander in the desert for another 30 years.
Meanwhile, we have an election that is going to be close in any event, and we seem to have ample evidence that there is going to be more than a little mischief in a number of places, meaning it will be a long night, week, or maybe even a month. Maybe Mr. Bush should consider inviting a few Iraqui election monitors to observe and police the US polls next week. Turnabout, you know.
And it reminds me of that old Chicago saying, "It's election day. Vote early ... and often!"
I really dread next week.
posted by Mike B at 10/29/2008 11:29:00 PM
3 Comments:
I've found that asking Germans about "Überhangmandanten" will usually get them to shut up about fair elections. :-)
I for one don't plan on gloating next week... no matter how things turn out, the pendulum's going to swing back the other way some day. I might smirk a little, though, if the race in my voting home of Arizona turns out to be close.
I am trying to be happy for the reasons there are to be happy about the way things will turn out (he is intelligent; it is exciting and inspring to see people from poor backgrounds and broken homes succeed (oh - that was Bill Clinton), well middle class backgrounds and elite educations, but still from a broken home). Still it will be good that people won't be convinced that the country _can't_ elect someone with darker skin. Unfortunately, the unreasonable expectations so many people have sbout this make me worry about how they will feel when reunited with reality.
The only thing we can be 100% sure of are executive orders and there lies the rub for me.
Some of the things that bother me most about the current administration are going the way of the do-do no matter who wins (the prison in Gitmo).
grateful for small miracles -a
Papascott: Thanks for your sensitivity ... very democratic of you ;)
Anonymous: Do you mean Doo-Doo? And the former denizens of the Gulag should have had it so good as Club Gitmo. I doubt it will be going away anyway, as the new administration will likely need it for dissidents like me.
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