terrible picture i took from my TV

It's election day and I should hope that you've done your civic duty and voted in the presidential election. I think the season premiere of South Park offered a great parable for voting in America today. If you missed it, I trust it will be re-run about a hundred times. I have CNN on right now, and thank God. I'm loving the clock counting down to the time the first polls close. It's totally unnecessary for me to know how many hours, minutes, and seconds until they start counting the votes.

I'm also amazed at how many people get to work today for the election. It's funny how many people work campaigns (and I wonder what they do when there's no elections-- maybe Fraggle will email in a response to let us know when she's done working for Kerry). I think this is a time when any political science major can get a job with some sort of politics, but what about the poor graduates in May 2005? These poor kids don't have an election to jump into at all. They'll have to move into long-term jobs I guess, like council people or law stuff... I don't know...

In case you haven't heard, this is the closest and most important election ever, that is since the last election. Who knows who may win this powerful battle of titans? All I know is that I voted, so put that in your pipe and smoke it. I think it's funny to hear people yelling at each other about who's voting for who. I find it even more insightful that this division is created in politics, which is supposed to be for the greater good. In essence, it's saying that people can't even see eye to eye on what is good for us. That's no surprise when you break it down to person to person, but with the amount of people in America it should be easy. And I guess it is. Both candidates are against terrorism, crime, taxes, etc.

I think the best part of this election is seeing who supports which candidate. From celebrities to my neighbors here at school. I find it down right HILARIOUS to hear arguments from people who assume knowledge in the face of blind loyalty. For example, an argument next door to me boiled down to what it means to be an American. As a Kerry supporter defended himself, an abrasive Bush supporter kept throwing out the amazingly intelligent phrases, "Kerry sucks," "You suck," and "You don't know what you're talking about." In a stroke of inspirational monologue, the Kerry supporter defended, "No, a real American would listen to my opinion because America is about understanding and freedom of opinion. A real American would respect my choice and not make fun of me for it." To which the stellar response came back, "A real American would get behind their president at election time."

Let's break that down for those of you who don't see the insane levels of humor in that line: 1) Grammatically correct, it would be "A real American would get behind his/her president at election time," but that's just nit-picky. 2) A real American is defined in one singular characteristic. 3) The statement is the antithesis of democracy altogether. If we got behind out president each time an election came, our current president would be and old Gerald Ford. We would never get a new president if we always stood behind our current president. 4) Do you really need a fourth? C'mon-- that was soooo stupid.

I also chuckled a bit when I heard CNN cite Britney Spears as a Bush-supporter today. While sexual innuendos surely come to mind, I leaned more towards the people that actually want to know who she's voting for; those precious, nonexistent few that love Brit for her mind, not just her body; those teen beauty queen wannabes who need to know who she's voting for so they can cast the same ballot in their seventh grade mock election.

And in the end, who cares who celebrities are voting for? After all, a simple walk by Marie F. Luksic Hall will show you that gun-toting military-obsessed people love Bush. I do have to say that, while the previous statement wins favorite election comment, my favorite election image goes to another here in Luksic. Some flunkey hung a sign that read "Sportsmen for Bush." This could've read phallic-zealous gun-lovers for Bush, but that's too long, right? THAT aside, the funny part was the Confederate flag that hung in the window behind it. Clearly a representation that America still has a ways to go.

Oh well, huh? Let's just end on this. Someone's going to win. I want a change in President because George Bush's public speaking skills still terrify me. I thought at one point, "You should go for Bush solely for entertainment value-- he's terrible," but then I thought, "Theresa Heinz Kerry is one crazy broad too-- go for Kerry." And so I did. We'll see what develops, but one thing's for sure: it's over!