A Historical Election

So I think a bit of the dust has settled now.

And so many other bloggers have mentioned something about it, so without much else to write about (or nothing else that I thought would be interesting to read) tonight I've decided to put it on here.

Good job Barack.

You beat a pretty feeble opponent in McCain.

With Oprah's backing alone you basically won the presidency. She does after all have about 30 million faithful followers. I'm not saying that every single one of them voted for you because of her - but I'm just going to say that it definitely helped more than it hurt (the millions that she gave you aren't anything to scoff at either).

It's really tough living in the Northwest. Everyone is so damned emotional about their politics. And God forbid that anyone think differently - or out here - conservatively.

I don't connect well with most people when it comes to politics. This is one of those things that I am not black and white on. People think that you either have to be a democrat or a republican. And then when you belong to a specific group you have to share the same basic values; vote along party lines.

Well, here are mine:

I relate most to the fiscal conservatives. I believe in as low as taxes as possible and as little government as possible. But, I am liberal when it comes to basically everything else. I believe in the legalization of gay marriage, marijuana, right for women to make the decisions for their bodies - in fact, right for anyone to do anything to their own bodies. My saying was always, "As long as you are not harming others" you can basically do anything you please.

So where do I fit? Nowhere really.

Which is why I don't vote - and I've mentioned this before. 4 years from now I've decided to vote though. There are too many local initiatives that will affect my life that I'd like to have a say on.

But the president? There's no way my 1 vote out here in the bluest state of them all would even count.

I hated hearing the "don't forget to vote". Seeing all the emails. The commercials. The signs on the side of the road. What waste. Obama was a lock. And for people not to see that is kind of crazy. Yes. I even bet money on him. That's how sure of it I was. Sure, I had made a previous bet when I didn't even know the name "Barack", but that was back then.

And here we are now. Less than 2 months away from a new presidency.

There are a few things I'd like to say about the upcoming presidency.

-I am a big believer in timing. In my opinion, any charismatic, well educated and spoken person with the proper people behind them could take this country out of the shit hole we've got ourselves in. And seriously? It is not that bad (I've mentioned this before). When people talk about who the best president of this country ever was - they mention FDR. He did after all bring us out of the great depression. But you know what? Could he have just been the right guy at the right time? Imagine if FDR was born 30 or 40 years later. Would he be the best president in American's minds then? Sure, it's a bit of a weak argument because anyone could argue timing - but Barack is taking over at a great time. And it's only because it can't really get that much worse. Sure it can, but a lot of the pain from the initial shock has already hit - and any more pain will be met with a bit of numbness or maybe a callous.

-Which is exactly why what Barack might be doing is a bit dangerous. If people Hope for Change what are they actually hoping for? I was laughing to myself on election night because they showed Harlem on TV. People cheering, people crying. Guess what? All of those people had to go back to Harlem that night. The unemployed, the homeless, the hungry, they all returned to where they came from the same way. Nothing had changed for them. Will anything change for you and I? People get the economy and politics mixed up all the time. But our economy goes boom and bust every decade. And yet, every decade we continue to attribute a good economy to the current presidency, and on the flip side blame the presidency when things aren't going our way. Everyone pointed to the republicans this election, but did everyone forget that we've had a great ecomony (albeit inflated by home prices) from '02 to '07? People quickly forget things (in a year) when things start turning south. I'm sure 5-7 years from now I'll be writing about how everyone has already forgotten about how "bad" it was in '08 and '09. So, wake up, as usual your life is what you make it. You have no one to blame but yourself and blaming those (or thanking those) in office is just downright silly.

Hope is an interesting thing. It's something that this country has stood upon for decades.

Personally, I hope that at the end of this that we have more than just hope. The weight of so many livelihoods rests on the shoulder of a new presidency. A new party.

So somethings will change.

I hope that the greatest empire ever to have lived on this Earth is either still in growth phase or at least treading water. I do not want to be part of the demise...