Soundtrack for this post. The opening isn't as punchy as I'd like, but maybe the Brits don't like punchy common folk.I know the poo-flinging won't stop after the votes are counted tomorrow. All things considered, the Republicans have managed to cover all their bases: A Romney win, and there's dancing in the Board Rooms. An Obama win, and the election was stolen by Hurricane Sandy and that RINO (a fitting name, BTW) Chris Christie. In Florida, the Republican Administration seems hellbent on making sure no one votes. They had some help over the weekend with a plucky volunteer creating a bomb scare. The Ohio Secretary of State is stamping his foot and holding his breath until he turns blue because some people want to vote even after he told them they couldn't. That there's a partisan lawsuit that is trying to put him in time-out demonstrates one of the differences between the two parties. One wants as many people as possible to get to the polls, to exercise their RIGHT TO VOTE. The other just wants their supporters. I gotta wonder about the confidence they have in their candidates; if high voter turn out is bad for them, why do they support their candidates?
For now, though, I want to spend a moment thinking about how marvelous it is to vote. Whether you live in Caribou, ME, or Hattiesburg, MS, or Orland Park, IL, or The People's Republic of San Francisco, CA - these national elections remind us that we are all American. For all our differences, great and small, geographic, biographic, whatever. It's pretty awesome, really.
Does the outcome please everyone? Obviously not. It never does and it never will. It wasn't designed to do that. There will be people having a sad on Wednesday. There will be joy in Mudville at last. Some folks who had a job will be looking for a new place to live. Others, who get hired, will be scrambling to find a place to stay in state capitals and the District of Columbia. Here in IL, we even elect judges (what a stupid idea) and our county sheriffs and county coroners. Now, tell me: Does it really make a difference if the person who determines whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide is a Republican or Democrat? The good folks who designed our system seem to think so. Me, I'm voting for the Green Candidate for Kane County Coroner, because I'd be interested to know how such would operate in that office.
The next two days are a celebration of We The People, continuing to work on that whole More Perfect Union thingy. That's a big deal. A really big deal. Tomorrow morning, when I walk in the voting booth, a not insubstantial part of me will be glowing with a kind of patriotic fervor. Little old me gets the chance to have my say, to make my wishes known, to have a voice in who makes the decisions and laws in Kane County, across Illinois, and even in Washington. Heady stuff, that.
No matter who wins the various races, Wednesday morning I'll feel good (not everyone will; trust me, an Obama re-election will create a poo-flinging extravaganza unlike anything we've seen before) because, even with the flaws in the system, and the more than occasional crazy person faking a bomb scare and state officials getting in the way of people exercising their RIGHT TO VOTE, the outcome will be the result of us common folk being as murky or clear as we can be.
That, friends and neighbors, is a huge thing.
