post election thoughts

what else can i say than that i'm disappointed.

it's not obama, really, we just knew that he would win (did you see his following on facebook alone?) and if you recall, i was considering voting for him myself, a while back. it's nothing personal, but the bottom line is that we're a military family (my brother-in-law usmc sergent (now, right?) evan vanover did two tours of iraq post 9/11) and that really changes your view on politics. okay, yes, i've always been a liberal republican, but i do agree with the war, and i do not think we should bring troops home. they need to be there. they are defending our freedom, we will not accept defete. perhaps i should also mention that i am still one of the very few bush supporters left. yes, obama, i will support you, too. i may complain, but i do not bash presidents. (now, governors, on the other hand...)

the bigger upset, was in my local politics. at my precinct, i heard the most discouraging comments from those waiting in line- a few, first time voters at 25, 40, 50 years old. there were saying things such as "this one really counts," and "we need to Change, you know." a few were turned away for falsifying documents, some for failing to change an address, and others for not registering. "you know, you have to register every year to vote" someone else chimed in. REALLY? REALLY? so when there is a calling to vote in a historical election, people suddenly jump in our little democratic community- needing to Change. and that just pisses me off, since this record-breaking turnout in over a century was still only at 64%. where the hell is everyone else? frustrating. but at least it was above forty percent. but i digress. as i stepped up to the table to receive my ballot, i realized that they gave me no instructions. the ballot was long and complicated. there was no bold black line dividing the straight-ticket voting area from the rest of the ballot. because i usually vote mixed-ballot, i didn't think much of it, but i then wondered how many irregular voters marked the democrat straight-ticket area, and yet still proceeded to color in all of the other ovals. again, frustrating. i fault the volunteers, though i am certain that the outcome would have been the same.

the worst of all, came in my local politics. namely, the position of village president. we were afraid that our candidate would lose to village family, because a third candidate (with poor spelling and a lack of world history, mind you) would split his votes. indeed, that's what happened. and the village will be forced to be run by the same damn family members that have been running it for nearly a century. the good news, is that we have a killer board, and of course, an embarrassing level of experience with village president recalls, should there be any issues.

my man john accivitti also lost his run for state representive, a significant loss that i feel was created by all of the dirty, negative media that the michigan republican party was flooding my mailbox with. it sure seemed downright nasty. it probably even crossed the line, and yet, the ads were coming from the mrp, and not john himself. i did get a nice letter opener out of the deal, though, but i am incredibly dissappointed.

and finally, stem-cell research passed by an unnerving margin. will someone please put in some serious guidelines to this? though we surely need cures to disease, we don't need clones, and fetal testing. we need ethics.

perhaps that is really the bottom line. we just all need ethics.

god bless america.