Color me impressed

Interestingly enough, I DID get out and vote yesterday and the deciding factor was a robocall from the DNC Monday night.  They reminded where the polling location was and asked to vote Democrat, but above all just VOTE!

So I did.  This may be the only time I've ever actually listened to a robocall all the way through, much less actually been motivated by it...
 
I used the Dallas Morning News online voting guide to pick through my candidates yesterday morning ...I scrolled past name and party and based my vote solely on what they wrote about themselves; this is the same guide I've used since 2004.  This is the first year I've had so few R's, and I certainly had a shit-load more "L's" than I've ever had in the past (talk about a herd of cat's though ...Libertarians are all over the fucking place; some awesome, some tin-foil hat wearing with platforms that read more like manifesto's); oh, and many more D's than usual as well.  One thing I'll never be accused of is not paying attention to individual platform.

Through the last four cycles, I never rewarded a vote to anyone basing their campaigns on their dislike on the CiC; the vitriol towards Obama on the part of some of the candidates cost them a vote ...but after looking at the county website, it would appear that not a single one of my votes that weren't Republican meant much.  Bummer ...when I lived in Dallas county, at least I felt like my vote counted for a bit more, but I'm hardly bitter about it.  Reading through the candidates own words, I'm fairly certain that most people in this county probably vote a straight ticket because some of those "R's" sounded fucking crazy ...and the disclosed campaign dollars painted an even scarier picture.

So I did it and although I mostly call bullshit on the "if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain" line of thought, I still think it's just lazy.  I don't tend to be exceptionally vocal about politics ...with the exception of my two brothers, nearly all of my family and quite a few of my friends lean hard right Republican.  The "wailing and gnashing of teeth" on Facebook this morning was somewhere in between satisfying and even a little scary.  Same rhetoric as in 08 "OMG, we're a Communist country now!" a lot of genuine fear, a few less than sincere regards about wanting to move to another country, and a few truly despicable remarks basically saying that Democracy is only good when one side wins.  There was even one patently racist remark that was (amazingly enough) called bullshit on by her own Republican friends.

The genuine FEAR from so many of them is pretty scary though.  The accusations of such a negative campaign by Obama didn't really resonate with me.  I've left the TV off for the last few months, but the few times I've had it on, the negative ads weren't by Obama here in the state of Texas.  The bubble that people have been living in has really been pretty amazing; they've been listening only to the people repeating over and over how horrible Obama has been, and they just can't fathom how half the country can't SEE THAT IT'S TRUE!!!  The only problem is ...well, that it just ISN'T true; he hasn't been stellar, but all the dire predictions being repeated are the same ones from '08, and they didn't happen then either.  I ran across this article the other day that really cracked me up:  “This is the most important election of all time!” (again)
 
I really hope that this cycle will at least be the beginning of the end for the religious right in politics.  If anything else, at least it will finally not have rewarded the rantings of people repeating something untrue over and over hoping the repetition will somehow make it true.

I checked the results on my phone last night a few times while watching a bunch of DVR'ed stuff and fell asleep with Romney having a substantial lead.  When I woke up around 10:30 and looked ...I about flew out of the chair to see Obama had already been declared the winner!  I opened the laptop and turned on the TV to Fox news no less.  I really REALLY dislike Fox, but I do have to give them credit for giving VERY evenhanded coverage (although "stunned disbelief" pops into my head as a descriptor of some of the expressions I saw).  Romney was quite classy in his concession speech, Obama gave a nice acceptance speech.  I didn't see it coming, but I gotta say I'm glad to see that it did!

I really hope that the tantrum of the last 4 years will be tiring and maybe both sides will start giving a little bit again.  There's no more second term to worry about trying to prevent now and the hyper-partisan gridlock really doesn't serve a huge political purpose now aside from the 2014 & 2016 elections.  I've said it again and again ...recovery was going to happen no matter who wins; I'm just glad Obama won't be scapegoated for the last 4 years.  On the message boards, the conspiracy nuts are popping up left and right already.

I'm glad Romney didn't make it.  I don't think he'd have been a bad president, but I'm still glad Obama won. I feel bad for many of my friends and family who so strongly think it's the end of the world, but hopefully the echo-chamber thinking will let up a little bit.  Reality isn't always what you wish it was, but it's damned sure the one we're stuck with.  I wish them the best and hope the sour grapes taste fades as soon as possible.

At least one can hope.