Wednesday, November 05, 2008

It’s all over but the crying Current mood: bummed Category: News and Politics Well, I'll say this: The Democrats (and Obama) ran one HELLUVA campaign. I've been an observer of politics since I was knee high to a June Bug, and never have I seen such a well organized effort to take a political office. Conversely, the GOP did everything it could to lose this race, and did so in fine fashion. Hats off to you my friends. In 2000 you pushed McCain out of the way because he was too much of the "maverick" (honestly...he looks nothing like Tom Cruise. Tom Skerritt, maybe...but I digress) and pushed "The Shrub" (George W.) into office because he was more aligned with the evangelical, and fundamental religious right (The Moral Majority which is neither, actually, Jerry Fallwell, et al) that preferred to base legislation and governance on the bible and not the Constitution. Then in 2008, when McCain (the maverick) started winning primaries, and it all but appeared that he'd be the party nominee, the GOP brass decided that they had to mold him to fit the far-right and religious right form. What they really succeeded in doing was turning the maverick into the "angry white dude" that turned off so many. Sadly, there are a ton of un- (or under-) educated folks that vote based on soundbytes and images. That's a poor commentary on our nation as a whole, but it's also not the point of this posting. The point is this: REPLUBLICANISM is DEAD! Fin. Kaput. Auf wiedersehen. So long, farewell, goodbye! The only reason McCain got as many votes as he did (46-48% depending on which source you trust) is because there were a HUGE number of people like me who voted not so much for McCain as we voted against Obama. I didn't rally under my GOP flag. Fuck that and fuck their little club. The GOP hasn't represented me and my views since I was in high school and learned to think for myself, and question everything. I'm NOT a Republican, and don't you dare label me as one!!! The only thing the GOP had to keep me on their side was the fact that I had even less in common with the Democratic party. That's it, really. Pretty sad. Now that Republicanism as we know it is dead, perhaps the Conservatives (like me) can take the party back, and inject a little bit of fresh air into it. Change (like the Obama rally cry) is not always bad, and this is coming from an OCD person that abhors change. The right kind of change is a fantastic thing, and since we live in a dynamic world, we need a dynamic party that is willing to adapt to stay alive. Ronald Regan was a great man, and perhaps one of the greatest presidents this nation has ever had. A throwback to some Regan conservatism would not be such a bad idea...as long as it is mingled (and not just casually so) with some adaptability, and flung far, far away for morality-based legislation. To the GOP: So the 8 year experiment went horribly awry. Acknowledge, re-group, and move on. Show me and the rest of the conservative "sinners" how the GOP can become the party of "change" (since everyone likes that word so much). Study the mechanics of the Obama campaign, and learn from them. Compare and contrast their campaign with your own, and learn why theirs was so effective in galvanizing support, and your own was so effective is creating dissent from within. Most importantly, stop thumping your bibles long enough to pick up a magazine and read an article with some *gasp* SCIENCE in it! Embrace the academic and scientific world, and learn to look past your own noses. I understand that a very large portion of the population holds religion (and religious dogma), theology, and morality in such high regard that they become intertwined with politics, but that has to be stopped, or at least tempered to keep people like me from just giving up. KEEP YOUR RELIGION OUT OF MY LIFE! Yes, I know this country was founded on (among other things) religious freedom, but that means I'm just as free to NOT worship your god/cow/great pickle in the sky as you are to do so. My only hope (there's another buzzword...) is that the propaganda about Obama is only partially true. Even if he's a flaming pinko-commie-Marxist there's only so much he can do without the support of congress (the opposite of "progress"...) and the American people. If he goes too deep into the Socialist territory, he'll be gone soon enough. The people of this nation won't stand for it, I believe. Time will tell. Ahh well...it was the outcome I predicted, and perhaps it's the outcome we needed. When the dust settles, we'll still be fighting a global war on terror, the economy will still be in the shitter, foreign policy will still take years to repair, and meanwhile we still fester in our own stupidity here at home. It's gonna take a long time to get out of this handbasket, and I'm not so sure that Obama or the GOP-created FrankenMcCain can do much about it. See yall in 4 years...MAN I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!