1 Boring Old Man

It’s early in the night. They’ve called Georgia for Obama with a three way snarl in the Republican Race. But I’m feeling kind of good about things. I’m feeling a little relief from the dark cloud that descended when Bush was re-elected four years ago. I felt then like I had awakened in another country, one I didn’t like very much. It was controlled by religious intolerance and thinly disguised bigotry. It was run by rich people, people who lived in gated communities who didn’t want see any of the pain in the world – but didn’t mind at all contributing to it. I couldn’t fathom that a President who had started a war based of fabrications, a war of assasination, could win the majority of the votes, though he represented a very small minority – rich white people, a minority these days.

I think I always knew that communism wouldn’t work. Nothing wrong with the idea for families or small groups, but it couldn’t work for large groups. Humans are diverse, self-focused. People can’t be reined into the kind of uniformity communism proposes. Socialism itself only works in very homogeneous cultures – places like Denmark. So I always looked forward to the day that the Cold War would end, falling under the weight of its own absurdity. It just didn’t occur to me that we’d pick right up with a religious war between Islam and everything else, and that we’d have a resurgence of the Nixon years. So much for my predictive powers.

But I feel good tonight. We Americans are coming out and voting. People are kind of passionate about who they’re voting for. I like Hillary, and am glad about the women voters rallying behind her. I like Barak Obama and am pleased the black voters are coming out and voting in droves. I used to like McCain before he started saying things I doubt he even believes, but I sure like that he’s not ga-ga for the religious charlatan vote. It doesn’t feel like the smirk of George W. Bush and the snarl of Dick Cheney have a vice grip of the soul of America today. Rush Limbaugh is choking on his own venom, as are the religious "wrong." Bush and Cheney are still doing monstrous things in Washington – like that obscene budget, more fitting for Genghis Khan than the President of a free country, but there’s some air to breath right now.

I voted for Barak Obama because I like him, and he opposes the stupid war. I don’t pay much attention to platforms or rhetoric. It’s interesting, but right now we need a President who can think on his feet, who is a natural-born leader, and we could sure use some charisma [after the sarcastic and awkward years with the less-than-dynamic duo, prophets of hate and fear]. But I’ll gladly vote for Hillary if she wins the nomination. I’m not even mad about Bill Clinton getting feisty defending her. If she’s president, the Republicans are going to go after her with a pick ax and Bill has already felt their bite, and dealt with it well, until they got him on his well-deserved morals charge. It’s going the way it’s supposed to go.