Dare to be stupid

Looks like we have another four years of Bush to look forward to. No, it's not guaranteed, but I don't have much hope at all. And even in the incredibly unlikely event that Kerry DOES win, it will be by a disturbingly narrow margin. How could so many people still support Bush? I mean, yes, I know and know of some Bush supporters, but they always seemed to be an annoyingly vocal minority. I guess that's just in my narrow little part of the world, though. Actually, it looks like the entire Northeast DID vote for Kerry. Anyone else in this area for secession? We can take the Pacific Northwest, too. It'll be a country with another country in the middle, sort of like East and West Pakistan, back before one of them (I forget which one) decided to become Bangladesh.

The whole "Let's call this state for a candidate when only 30% of the vote is in!" thing that the TV networks are doing is pretty irritating, too. I mean, I don't think ANY of them agree (although, unfortunately, they all DO seem to agree that Bush has a definite lead). Oddly enough, Fox News is actually giving higher numbers for Kerry than MSNBC. So I don't really believe the news media at this point, but I DO believe that Bush is at least tied, if not in the lead, and that depresses me.

Oh, and they apparently haven't even counted my vote yet. I guess it doesn't matter much, at least presidentially speaking, since the guy I voted for seems to have a lock on Pennsylvania anyway, but it's still irritating.

Anyway, I'd better get to bed. I have to be up in less than six hours. I doubt anything will be settled by then.

And I'm resigned to that

Well, it looks like Bush won. I'm sure there was some cheating involved, because I think there are a lot of people out there who get a kick out of cheating, even when it's of no real benefit to them. Overall, though, I think we have to face the cold, hard truth, which is that a lot of people LIKE brutal, totalitarian, barely literate leaders. Much of the United States, and probably much of the world, consists of people who are afraid of thinking, who prefer easy lies to complicated truths, and who figure that the status quo must be okay because, hey, THEY'RE doing all right. This philosophy is pretty much the hallmark of the Republican Party, but I think a lot of non-Republicans subscribe to it as well. I can definitely see its appeal. I mean, it's easy, and we all want life to be easy, right? When the system isn't serving you very well, though, and you constantly see other people who are getting TOTALLY screwed over, it's harder to subscribe to the conservative philosophy. Unfortunately, the philosophy is apparently common enough that Bush can ride it to victory not once, but twice. (And yes, I know he probably stole the last election, but he wouldn't have been able to if he hadn't gotten almost as many actual votes as Gore.)

Hmm, "riding the philosophy" is kind of an odd metaphor, isn't it?

Anyway, I'm disappointed, but I guess it's not the end of the world. Not yet, anyway. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens during Bush's second term. I think I've gotten into the state of resigned helplessness, where you realize that nothing can be done, and it sucks, but it's also kind of a relief in a way. Unless something else significant happens (which I suppose it very well might), this will probably be my last post on the election.

To start on my new trend of non-election blogging, I might as well mention that I picked up the new Minus 5 EP today. It's called At the Organ, and it's another project that they did with Wilco. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but it's pretty cool so far, and I like the sticker on the wrapping. "New seven-song EP featuring Scott McCaughey, Wilco, Peter Buck, and this awesome bar code!" I think I'll need to cut that out and save it.