I don’t just mean the Election, but the end of eight years of half-bright leadership and the social movements that allowed a near-incompetent like George W. Bush to become President of the United States. While W. fumbled his way through the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, destroying the national surplus, beating the economy like a rented mule, his former opponent Al Gore, love him or hate him, won a Nobel prize. The world’s opinion of the United States, something I experienced first hand from 1996 until 2005, is nothing short of appalling, though how could we expect anything less? George W. Bush, on everything from the environment to human rights, has disgraced the Idea of America. Where once we stood for hope, in a way that Europe just cannot at present, W.’s America stood for arrogance and ignorance. W. peddled Fear, and Fear treated him well. What November 4th will be for me, when I cast my ballot for Barack Obama, is a referendum on Fear, on the warped visage of America under Bush, Jr., and a first step in the right direction after eight years of missteps, stumbles, and outright sprawling.

And, yes, I have heard all the soundbytes about how McCain is not W., but I’ve also watched this race unfold since 2007. John McCain, by his own admission, has voted with W. 90+% of the time. You combine these facts with McCain’s first ‘major decision’ of attaching Sarah Palin to his ticket and I am not sure how you are meant to see any hope for the next four years. Palin is nothing short of frightening, and she exemplifies the motions through which we found ourselves governed by the amateurish Bush administration. Other than calling herself a “Maverick,” Palin has done nothing but use Fear to try and turn the tide of the American public in hers and McCain’s favor: stressing Obama’s very tentative link with William Ayers, stressing Obama’s middle name, and so on. Now even McCain’s own advisers are calling Palin “a diva.” If McCain can’t even keep his own ticket together, how is he meant to bring this country together?

Despite the trash that the McCain-Palin campaign has forced into our living rooms, I am confident in my decision to back Obama. Where McCain gets Dick Cheney’s endorsement in the final days of this election, Obama received Colin Powell’s. As Andrew Sullivan so darkly put it: “There’s a reason Cheney needs McCain elected. He needs to avoid prosecution for war crimes and only a McCain-Palin administration can assure he won’t.”

Obama was endorsed by Powell for a very different reason. Powell has concerns, as many of us do, about “the direction that the [Republican] party taken in recent years.” Powell also has concerns about Governor Palin. And, more important than McCain’s poor handling of his campaign’s response to the economic crisis, his disturbingly poor decision to take on Palin, Powell finds the way that members of the Republican party have used the Islamic faith as a near-slur revolting. While Powell says he does not attribute this disgusting tactic to McCain, I still harbor suspicions about McCain’s strategies and responses with regards to Barack Obama (and wasn’t McCain the man who promised a clean campaign?). McCain finally had to deal with the problem he may not have started, but seemingly had no intentions of dismantling, when an attendant of one his rallies called Obama “an Arab.” Worse still, this woman couldn’t “trust” Obama because she, in her gross ignorance, thought he was an Arab. Another man was “afraid” of Obama. McCain may not be W., but he certainly didn’t seem to mind the GOP playing about with Fear in a desperate attempt to get McCain elected.

This country has become polarized in a sickening way — maybe these problems were under the surface during the relative peace and prosperity of the Clinton administration, only coming to the surface after 9/11 and our wars in the Middle Eastern theater. But, this being the case or not, there is one politician who seems dedicated to restoring Americans’ and the world’s faith in America, who seems capable of uniting us in a way that we have not been for a long time, and then there is a politician who, after being destroyed by Karl Rove and W. in 2000, supported the incompetence of W. 90+% of the time for eight years, who chose one of the saddest characters in American politics since Spiro Agnew to run with him, and has given us as many different directions of movement as Al Gore did in 2000. Who is John McCain? He certainly does not act like a Maverick, his decisions to support W. and select Palin are not Maverick decisions, and so who is he asking us to believe he will be as President?

I had nothing but the utmost respect for John McCain, as a war hero, as a man who returned home after years of incarceration to become a public servant… but McCain has shown me no one to respect over the last few months. I hope this does not signal the end of his political career, but, if it does, he has no one but himself to blame.

Please go out and vote on November 4th. I don’t care if you are voting for McCain or Barr or Nader, I just want as many of us as possible to vote. It is one of the few things this country asks of us. All the hype aside, I do think this is the most important election of my generation. The results will affect the way this country is run for the foreseeable future, just as Reagan’s administration inspired a change in the Republican party, just as Carter’s failures colored the way the Democratic party was perceived for years afterwards. It you want your voice to have been heard when we look back on all of this, go and vote.

As Stephen Eley said (in a quote Aram Zucker-Scharff sent my way): “Whatever you believe in, get the hell out there to vote, not because I said so, but because your excuses aren’t good enough.”

I was never passionate about politics until this election. Until this year, I could have cared less about who was President.

And then, one day about six or seven months ago, I happened to pick the elliptical trainer in front of a TV broadcasting MSNBC. Some guy was speaking in front of a crowd, but all I could do was read the subtitles. Afraid of losing my machine to another gym-junkie, I decided to not ask for the channel to be changed and made do.

I watched Barack Obama give a speech back before the election had even started.

Senator Obama was talking to people in credit card debt. He was telling him that he would save them from those predatory lending companies that got them into this problem.

That statement caused me to nearly fall off my machine. What?! This guy was blaming credit card companies for other peoples’ debt? That was ludicrous, and definitely summed up everything that pissed me out about most Americans—an unwillingness to accept responsibility for their own mistakes. People spent what they didn’t have, lived outside their means, fell into massive debt, and then blamed the credit card companies for doing this to them?!

And then here’s this guy, capitalizing on America’s inability to accept responsibility for anything. I instantly thought he was the slimiest politician that I had ever seen (yes, he was one of the only ones I had really ever listened to speak, but I still hold true to my first judgment today). I finished my workout, shaking my head that people would actually believe a snake like that.

And now I sit here, completely horrified at the thought that the same socialist snake (who is bolstered by the same kinds of people who roared their approval at his indignation over the “evil” credit card companies who “forced” them into debt) may very well become President of our entire country.

The idea of his winning makes me literally feel sick. And, I don’t feel any better when I think about how his competition isn’t living up to who he used to be. I have so much respect for Senator John McCain. He is more of a man than Obama could ever wish to be. What he sacrificed for our country throughout his years is inspiring. But, I miss my Straight-Talk express from eight years ago. Lars, my fellow blogger, has expressed this on countless occasions, and only now am I starting to agree completely.

Seeing John McCain approve the bail-out bill made me lose most of my hope. Entangling the government in the private business sector is completely against what the Republican Party believes, and yet he felt he had to reach a compromise. I feel for him. He needs to prove that he’s not the same man as President Bush, and yet he feels like he needs to stay true to his Party. But, this compromise made me sick, especially when we see the most Liberal, left candidate there is doing exactly what he wants and not worrying.

I also feel sick over Palin, and I continue to stand behind her. It’s sickening that the media is doing to her exactly what they did to George Bush—painting her to be an idiot and then replaying those clips over and over until the mindless public believes them. Here’s a woman, a moral woman who is unapologetic about her beliefs and consequently gets ripped to shreds by whoever dislikes her. (Apparently, she’s an idiot. Who cares if she was elected the governor of Alaska and fought for reform? She looked confused a few times during an interview, and that proves she’s an idiot.)

The intense focus on her “negative” qualities is ridiculous, but people absolutely believe it like rapid Pavlovian dogs who obediently react whenever a new Youtube clip is made. It’s disgusting how intensely the media scorns Governor Palin’s daughter because she made the choice to keep her baby. If this had been Obama’s daughter, we never would have heard about it. They would have taken care of the little “problem” as soon as they had found out. (And, the media would have applauded the fact that Obama supports the “women’s right” to kill babies. Obviously, I added the last part, but you can understand how I feel.)

It seems unfair that the media goes in a tizzy when the amount of money spent on Palin’s wardrobe (money she didn’t spend, but someone spent ON her), but pretty much ignores anything even remotely negative about Obama.

Don’t Obama’s collaborations with people like Bill Ayers (an unrepentant domestic terrorist) and Tony Rezko (convicted criminal who exploited minorities) prove that he lacks the judgment to handle the huge crisis he will inevitably face if he takes the office? As also pointed out in the NY Post, it’s not even the fact that he was linked to these men, but don’t the shifting explanations also show the lack of integrity on Obama’s part?

One of Obama’s most significant executive “experiences” to date was as chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which was an educational reform project founded by Bill Ayers (the terrorist). The project was a colossal waste of $160 million dollars, which, under Obama’s leadership, failed to do anything it set out to do.

Obama’s tie to Rezko (the convicted felon) comes out of his legislative “experience”, which was similar to his executive experience in that he continued to waste people’s money. According to the Post, “Obama co-sponsored several pieces of housing legislation favorable to Rezko and other slum-developers, giving them hundreds of millions in subsidies and other tax and regulatory advantages. They in turn funneled money to Obama’s campaigns and let their buildings deteriorate, even turning off the heat on their tenants in the winter.” Obama never bothered to find out how the money was being spent, but he worked every single legislative session to help provide more money for his low-brow “friends”.

I started out this post talking about my apathy for politics before this race. I never cared. And, I’m sure you can ascertain that I do care very much now. But, the other day at dinner, I figured out what it really was that I cared about.

I love my country. I love it with every fiber of my being. I am so proud to be an American, and I am so proud of everything those stars and stripes stand for. I have been since I knew what that flag stood for. (Unlike Michelle Obama, who apparently just became proud of her country.)

America’s not what it used to be. It’s not the same country that those men fought for in the World Wars. When I read about the sacrifices Americans made during those wars—doing without and donating to the war effort and growing their own food, it’s almost laughable to imagine this Give Me More Generation actually sacrificing anything.

I’m not a crier or a super emotional person, but I was so choked up, I couldn’t even get the words out. I hate what we’ve become—a nation of whiners and selfish people who care only about themselves. I heard an interview the other day with a woman who said she always voted Republican because she was absolutely against abortion. But, this election was different. She wanted to get her job back, so she’s voting for Obama. Seriously? You were always against murdering babies, but as soon as your economic security was threatened, you changed sides? Shame on you. Shame on you.

Maybe this race shouldn’t come as a surprise. Someone in my class the other night seemed appalled that I didn’t support free healthcare. “Don’t you think we deserve to be healthy?” Sure. But, I don’t think the government should get any more involved in our personal lives than it already is. I don’t think that we should force the rich among us to pay for the healthcare of the poor.

The basics of our country and economy are going to be on a bad slope if Obama wins. He’s basically discouraging any incentive people have to work hard and make something of themselves. What’s the point of busting your butt to start your own business or going to a job you hate so that you can provide for your family, and then watch the government take your money until you’re at the same level of everyone else? What’s the point? I might as well work retail the rest of my life since, if Obama wins, I’ll just reap all the benefits bought by the money taken from the wealthy.

Again, my frustration is also towards the fact that I feel like McCain is compromising when he shouldn’t, and I’m frustrated that people seem to be purposely ignorant, and I’m sad about what our country is becoming.

But, really, crying at dinner isn’t going to solve anything. I’ve people comment that they will vote for the lesser of two evils, but I don’t agree. As disappointed as I am in McCain, I won’t apply the same label Obama has to him. McCain’s not an evil in my book—he’s just not what I wish he could be.

Whoever you vote for on Tuesday might be the solution. It might be the problem. I guess we’ll see. I’m sorry I sound so emo about it all, but I’ve really just kind of lost heart with everything going on. Either way, it’s been nice blogging with and to you all.  <3