It's election day. This is the fifth presidential election I've been eligible to vote in. And this is the fifth time I've cast my vote for president. That's right: I'm 5 for 5. Two times, the white guy I voted for won. One time, the white guy I voted for lost. One time, I voted for the white guy that didn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning Texas, but I was trying to guarantee that, in the future, we'd have a lock on having a third party on the ballot. That didn't work out so well.
There has only been one presidential election out of the five I've voted in where I've been truly excited and inspired by the candidate I was voting for. That was in 1992--the first time Clinton ran. He had a hopefulness and exuberance that was so appealing to my 23-year old heart and mind. He seemed perfectly suited for the post-Cold War era. I couldn't wait to go to the polls to cast my vote for him. By 1996, I wasn't quite so enthusiastic...
Every other election I've voted in--including this one--I've been casting my vote AGAINST the other guy, rather than IN FAVOR OF the guy I was voting for. How sad is that? The whole "lesser of two evils" phenomenon that is national politics is so disheartening. And people wonder why it's so difficult to get Americans off their super-sized asses and into the voting booth...
So I'm nervous about how this whole thing is going to turn out. I may be moving to Canada in the very near future. More later...
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