Wednesday, November 05, 2008

best anniversary ever.

i don't know what to say, other than i'm so freaking relieved by last night's election results that i don't even know what to do. mostly, i've cried. i started crying right before the west coast was called, then seeing jesse jackson crying made me cry, then i cried through obama's speech, at random points after obama's speech, and then again while watching the view this morning. i was concerned that florida (or ohio) would screw up again, or that the polls were wrong (it's happened before) and people really were voting for mccain in record numbers and not for obama. i was convinced that mccain supporters were purposefully waiting until election day to vote so they could throw off the lead that obama had in the early voting polls. basically, i was expecting a conspiracy. also, i was convinced if i said any of these things out loud that they would happen. superstitious + conspiracy theorist? hmmm. i'm sane, i promise.

the relief is palpable. the black cloud of doom that's been hanging over my head for the past, oh, eight years has cleared and i feel like i can finally be proud to be a part of this country again. that's no exaggeration. i had already looked into moving to canada (note: it helps to have a lot of money) because there was no way i was going to be able to handle another republican administration. i was afraid, for myself and the country and the rest of the world. no longer.

so this morning while watching the view i teared up again during the election (re)coverage, but that was cut short because elizabeth hasselbeck started talking and i suddenly wanted to bang my head against the wall. i need to say something about elizabeth. the woman is really good at two things: looking pretty, and parroting everything the mccain campaign said. in the weeks leading up to the election she wouldn't quit talking about obama's (tenuous) ties to bill ayers, so much so that it appeared to be her only reason for disliking him. if she had ever said that she just didn't support him because he's a democrat, that would have been fine. i would have much more respect for her. she never said that, or at least i never heard it if she did. she repeated the republican party's talking points about bill ayers, ad nauseam, and it got old. i realize that to an extent that's how politics works, but toward the end there she was starting to sound kinda--how do i say this?--incapable of thinking on her own.

this morning she apparently had a change of heart and now? now she completely supports obama. why? because he's the president and as an american she fully supports the president, no matter who that is. i have a problem with this because 1. she's either incredibly fickle or 2. she really does blindly support the president just because, which means she embodies what has been wrong with our country for most of the past eight years. i'm not okay with the herd mentality. i'm all for people supporting obama but i would like for that support to be based on merit and not on the belief that he's our next president and you support the president no matter what. she could have said that she wished maccain had won but she would give obama a chance to see what she thought of him. that she was so quick to switch sides seems disingenuous at best. elizabeth, i do not trust your kind.

in other, other news: i am sad that prop 8 passed in california. opponents of prop 8 are now suing (they're wasting no time! good!) to block the changes from taking effect. i feel about gay marriage the way many women i know feel about abortion: they want it to be legal but aren't sure they would have one themselves. i'm not sure i ever want to get married again, but i do want for other gay couples to be able to marry if that's what they want. of course, the gay marriage issue is really one of equal rights, and yes, i am all for equal rights. one of these days susan and i are going to run into some kind of problem because we aren't afforded the same rights as heterosexual couples. i know it will eventually happen and i don't look forward to it. so, i feel for gay couples in california--and everywhere, really, but i imagine it sucks extra to have your rights stripped away. i'm hoping that their ban on gay marriage will (again) be overturned.

rants aside, i'm very happy with the way the election turned out. i think obama will be an awesome president, and i'm hopeful that our country will soon stop looking like the total asses that we have bush has made us out to be.

1 Comments:

Blogger Runner Susan said...

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4:10 PM  

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