Please Vote!

I have a bunch of life-update posts in my head - my weekend (good), boy baby's health (better), the joy of taking 4 children to a 2 hour doctor appointment (predictably, none). I have new thoughts about my personal lack of life-direction and on parenting and on knitting (okay, that last one is slightly less deep, yet infintely more entertaining to me). However, it is the night before election, and all I'm really feeling is a fervent fearful hope.

I've been making some get-out-the-vote type calls for MoveOn.org. It's nice to feel like maybe I'm helping a little, and it's interesting to discover regional differences. In Ohio, they listen before they hang up on you. In Pennsylvania, they curse at you before they hang up on you. In Florida, they are 95, named Bessie, and talk your ear off until you're ready to hang up on them. I don't know that I really affected anyone I spoke with in any way, but one thing that encouraged me is that everyone I spoke with said they were planning to vote.

The US typically has abysmal voter turnout. If everyone voted, and the consensus was that people I loathe are the best ones to run the country, I would at least have the comfort of knowing the bastards were duly elected by the actual people. In 2002, only 39.7 of eligible voters even bothered (according to these guys), which means all the egregious abuses of power in the past 4 years weren't even really sanctioned by most of us. So, while I would love to say "vote for change!" or even "vote for anyone who will not just do whatever Bush wants!" I will instead simply say "vote." Please, please vote.

This midterm election is one of the most important in my lifetime. Traditionally, the whole checks and balances thing between governmental branches works pretty well, because a) the sitting President's party usually takes a hit during midterms and b) the Executive branch usually opts to observe existing laws. This is a different day and age on both counts - the Republicans have had control of Congress through both Bush administrations, and the Bush adminstration has, as a result, become really bold in its disregard for the law. For the government to function as it's designed, we really need to have a better leash on the Executive, and tomorrow's our chance.

There are two schools of thought about how to vote (if not more - this is likely a gross oversimplification). One school votes for the candidate whose platform they support most, even if that candidate is an unelectable dark horse. The other votes not so much for one candidate as against another. As is my Piscean way, I ride the fence, usually following school B but wishing for two votes so I could devote one to the poor underdogs who I would love to see in office. This year, I'll be sticking mostly with Plan B, so great is my hope for change and fear/loathing of the status quo.

I have been trying to write this for over an hour, through interruptions that only small children can imagine and through the fog of my own beleagured brain. I wish once more for eloquence and a bigger podium. I wish, above all, that I had valium or at least some hard liquor to get me through the next 24 hours. Despite myself, I have allowed hope to creep in, and I fear the letdown I'll feel if I wake up Wednesday to the prospect of two more years of unchecked dictatorial Presidential rule.