Descend into the Maelstrom

That’s right. My last and final thoughts on the U.S. election, until it’s finally over. I’m officially retiring from writing about the 2008 election- as I’ve spent too many thousands of hours reading and writing about it, and written dozens of articles on this blog and several other forums when any sane human being would have chosen to do something, anything else. I’ve been attacked from the left, attacked from the right, and everything in between for what I’ve said in conversations, emails, and in writing. Along the way I’ve gotten some positive feedback too, and I really appreciate that.

Let’s look ahead to what will happen in the near future, from election day to the near aftermath. This will prove to be a period fraught with extreme peril. Here are some things we all need to keep in mind moving forward:

Don’t Gloat, Democrats. I of all people would love to gloat and say “I told you so!” being one of the few who was far ahead of most highly-paid pundits, who confidently predicted an Obama victory for more than two years, including when Obama was polling 20 points under the powerful Clinton machine, and when the general election was straining under xenophobic attacks, which I’m especially sensitive to. I also predicted large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress come November 4th. Since the stolen election of 2000 I have bitterly endured 8 years of watching Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh cheer on as the Bush administration was ruining our country’s future while calling me and my ilk traitors against America. There are two ways for Dems to go after this victory: (1) attack and make fun of Republicans and conservatives, rubbing their noses in the sewers of their self-induced loss, and investigate every little thing they did in the last 8 years to satisfy the human desire for a vendetta. (2) Reach out across the aisle, shake the hands of your political opponents for a fair fight, and ask them to join you in rolling all our sleeves up together. The latter is the ONLY way to proceed, for several critical reasons. First, it is important in a two-party system to have a strong opposition. A failed Republican party isn’t good for America, whose continued success depends on checks and balances in Washington.  Secondly, our economy and foreign policy are in such a state of tatters that we will need all our talent, from both wings, to fly again in a civil manner.  Let’s finally end the god-forsaken culture war that has enveloped our nation like a Saddam poison cloud since the 1960’s. Liberals will have the upper hand and will be in a position to do so. Colin Powell is one of the few, whether Democrat or Republican, who understands this is the need of the hour, and he was so gracious as to reach across from his losing position. Fortunately for us, so does Obama. This isn’t about the right or the left winning; it’s about America winning. And for that to happen, the Republican party needs to stand for true principles once again, and come back to challenge us in 2010 with a new vision, not just a mysterious nostalgia for Sarah Palin’s “Real America” which no longer exists in a world of Good and Evil which never, ever existed. Governing is hard, and with it comes awesome responsibility; we should look forward to patriots from both sides working together again as one. We do not need to stoop to the nasty levels that the Republicans did in the early 2000’s while in charge of the White House and Congress.

Undecided Voters. Seriously, who are you and what’s wrong with you? There is an 8% float of people who don’t seem to know who to vote for 10 days before the election. Are you kidding me? We couldn’t possibly have a starker contrast between the two candidates and their philosophies. Never in our lifetimes has there been a larger gap between two presidential candidates who made it out of the primaries alive. This election represents the future vs. the past, belligerent global hegemony vs. international cooperation, objective rationality vs. hot-blooded “gut” decisions, and yes, the first serious black candidate vs. the old-boy white Washington network. It is a clash between the last gasp of the idealistic conservative Reagan revolution, and the birth of a new center-left system of governance that we haven’t seen before. Any undecided voter who exists out there simply boggles the mind. Make up your mind already!

Voter Fraud. Nobody has epitomized the cynicism and fear about the validity of our electoral system as clearly as my cousin, who sent me an email that is quite chilling. In it he wrote, “…in my gut I wonder how it could not be that he (Obama) wins. But yet on every conscious level, I feel deep doubt about whether he will win– mainly because of the election shenanigans that we’ve already started hearing about.” Many are indeed scared that the cheating Republicans will steal the election from the jaws of victory yet again in November. Meanwhile, Republicans will be talking for the next four years about how Obama’s evil minions and a group called ACORN stole the election away from the “real Americans.” My hope is that a landslide victory will put these doubts to bed once and for all, negating all the mistrust and cynicism that has shaped our politics for too long.

That’s it. It’s adieu on the politics till the other side of November 4th. For at least a little while, I’ll go back to blogging silly humor stories about culture or bizarre ruminations on living in New York, which somehow always seem to become more interesting than politics anyway.

And if you’re American: VOTE!