regala_electra | drama llama vote

Political post ahoy. Batten down the hatches. ;-)

I will be voting for Barack Obama tomorrow. The only reason I'm stating this right off the bat is for those are not inclined to read "another political post" then they should skip this one and hope my next post will be about something that doesn't cause a rise in blood pressure.

As I do know there are a few on my flist who are voting for other presidential candidates who are not running alongside that suave shark Joe the Biden [hee], I don't want to get into a political ~~bitchfest~~ argument.

Please don't bother reading this post if you are offended by spirited celebrations of a) voting for a Democrat, b) voting for Obama, and c) wanton acts of arugula sipping, latte eating, communist tea party drinkin' Socialist Marxist Binge Fake Americanism*.

* I have not nor ever been a sipper of arugula (I have eaten it but it was in college, everyone was experimenting!), eater OR drinker of lattes (I hate America because I don't like coffee *sobs*), invited to a communist tea party (um unless that tea party my English Club threw during my college days counts?), a Socialist or a Marxist. I am a Fake American since I am a New Yorker though. Sorry.

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS. Tomorrow is Election Day. *crawls under desk*

Here are my plans for the rest of today and tomorrow:

- Go to bed at 8pm/9pm since I only got THREE hours of sleep last night.
- Wake up at 5:30am to get down to my polling place
- Get to work
- Stop looking at the internet (no really. There's fic to write while I wait.)
- Do not listen to the radio or watch TV at all. I plan on doing some major cleaning.
- Wait for someone to text me around 10pm if it looks like Obama might actually have a shot of winning.
- If no text, put on The Daily Show/Colbert Report hour long special at 10pm, expecting my dreams to be crushed and only Jon and Stephen to be there to take away some of my pain.
- Drink. Drink a LOT.

Everything else is pretty flexible.

I was too young to vote in 2000. When I went to bed that Election Night, I thought Gore had possibly won and I woke up to the chaos that was the 2000 recount. 2004 left me B to the ITTER. (Kerry really wasn't a great candidate, to be honest, in retrospect. Ran a really "meh" campaign.)

As I sit here in my office, I can overhear someone (not a coworker) saying that he's pushing back a dinner reservation to make some phone calls for Obama tonight. That almost sounds like ~community organizing~ to my pinko ears.

(LOL I am such a dirty filthy capitalist. My views range from liberal to centrist.)

Obama had my vote in 2004. So if I'm going to be accused of being a kool-aid drinker, I guess I'm sipping on the vintage stuff. While I can be almost disgustingly optimistic I don't think the election of Obama will mean the next four years will be sunshine and lollypops. But it does signify a whole lot of untapped potential. The next four years are going to be tough. Nothing ever comes easy. But it will be damn easy for me to vote tomorrow.

Yes I can.

I don't have any idea what it's going to be like voting tomorrow. New York doesn't do early voting and because NY is always said to be in the bag for Obama (ugh hate that saying), I don't know if voter turnout will be that high. I do have to vote in the morning since I am working and I get into work around 8:30am. Hmm. Where I live, it's pretty hardcore Republican. We went for Bush in 2000 - I know this because I volunteered at my polling place to distribute the tallied votes to the AP service. It was an interesting bit of civic duty.

So I have no clue. Polls open at 6:00am and I am a stone's throw from my polling location. My neighborhood is working class folks mainly of Irish and Italian descent. Will it be bonkers if I show up when the polls open? Do I have to get there earlier than that? I honestly have no clue.

Which is why I am grateful that this informative post by

heidi8 exists.

This is extremely important:

If you're still in line when the polls close:
Stay in line. Anyone in line when the polls close must be allowed to vote. Even if your candidate of choice is announced as the winner of the presidency, there will be local and statewide races where you should make your voice be heard.

Also all the websites to check voter registrations are AMAZING. My sister K didn't vote in the primary and only registered this year and we checked out her registration online. In a minute's time, she had her polling location and was able to map out how to get there. *proud*

Random: I have no idea if I'm using an electronic voting machine this time around! We still had the only grandpa style mechanical machines up for the primaries. o_0

And because I did have trouble communicating with a very bitchy poll worker during the February Primary (she said I wasn't on the list because she kept mishearing my last name despite the fact that I carefully and repeatedly spelled it out for her) who nearly gave me a heart attack by saying I wasn't registered, if you encounter any problems while voting you can contact:

__ Call the Voter Protection Hotline at 1-877-US-4-OBAMA (1-877-874-6226) and someone will be able to help you.

__ Call the hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE (888-Ve-Y-Vota in Spanish) and/or visit their companion site www.866ourvote.org, sponsored by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law -- a nonpartisan group that sponsors the Campaign for Fair Elections --

I FEEL LIKE I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOREVER.

Voting in February for Obama was not enough. I just want to vote for him and want (need+hope+X-billion other emotions) to hear "Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States" NOOOOW.

I may be one hair's breadth away from throwing a Veruca Salt-style tantrum. But hey I've been holding it in for FOUR YEARS. It's been a long damn time.

My dad and I were watching Barack Obama's keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. It was passionate and powerful and it moved me in a way that I'd never personally been moved before. I might have been born in Reagan's era but my family suffered too much during that time to ever idealize his presidency. When George H.W. Bush was president, I was too young to really understand how well he governed and really all I knew was that the First Lady really wanted me to read (no worries on that front, since my dyslexia was discovered so early my mom did everything possible to make me the ardent reader I am today). When we did a vote in my elementary for 1992, I was sad that the President or that funny man, Ross Perot didn't win. (Clinton "won" my school with a significant landslide.).

I think I have both an idealized and exhausted perception of Clinton's presidency. So much of it wound up being embroiled in ~scandal~ that I was just ready for him to go at the end of it. Now of course most of Clinton's shenanigans really are molehills to the mountains created by the Bush (*shudder*) administration.

Never have I been afforded the chance to vote for someone who wasn't "the lesser of two evils" or merely a vote against the other guy. I'm voting for someone tomorrow. And that's amazing. It's an amazingly selfish thing, that is true and I'm able to acknowledge that. I'm sure there are some of you who are voting for Obama who don't really feel the way I do.

But I'm so tired of pre-cautionary cynicism. I'm tired of the smug I-told-you-so bitterness and divisiveness that always wins because we're so fucking terrified that if we do listen to our better angels we will find ourselves wanting. Fuck yeah that's some Bambi-eyed idealistic garbage, but I have had enough of selling myself short. I want something better. Not only do I want something better but I want to be able to move past decades of petty divisions.

I'm tired of people using ~code~ to attempt to hide their inner racism. "I don't trust him." "He's not American enough." "Why doesn't he wear a flag pin?" "I don't like his wife (who does she think she is?)" (<-- heard that gem yesterday) "He's arrogant." "He's elitist."

I for one welcome an arrogant elitist overlord who pledges to uphold the constitution. That whole thing where he's a constitutional lawyer is a sweet bonus.

I'm digging the Obama/Biden ticket. Joe Biden's foreign policy experience is fierce goddamn and despite those media-friendly gaffes he makes, he's very engaging and by all accounts seems like a decent guy. And he's a feminist. As I am a feminist, I am voting for the ticket that will preserve all my rights as a woman and won't pander to a segment of the electorate that seems uneasily concerned with what I decide is best for my uterus.

Er, as I don't want to make this my ~manifesto~ (damn Commie temptations!) I will shut the fuck up as I am probably boring everyone. Now go to this post by

adinfinitum and behold the most epic Obama picspam ever.

Yeah. As McCain once referenced to Obama, I am totally voting for That One.

Look at that presidential candidate. Goddamn.

Change isn't a dirty word 'round these parts.

Yes.

We.

Can.

I apologize for all the ~tilde~ abuse. It was for the greater good.