A Nobody's Hope for Election Day

To be honest, I’m far too emotional today to post much of anything.  I mean, it’s not like I have any piercing insight into the electoral process, nor do I have any prognostication worthy of any substantial consideration.  The day has arrived and all I can do is sit on my hands, ride it out, and hope that tomorrow will bring change.  I have no sagacious advice.  I am overseas and helpless.  I am tense and alone.  I am nobody.  But I am an American and I have hope. 

I have hope that the Democrats and Republicans alike learn the lessons of history can start addressing the growing litany of Bush’s failures [1]. 

I have hope that voting machines, even those manufactured by partisan Republicans, prove more reliable this time around (though the morning has barely begun and already all four machine types have reported errors favoring GOP candidates [2]).  I have hope that our election officials have learned from 2000, 2002, and 2004 and that voter intimidation, long lines, discrimination, threats, dirty tricks, and vote tampering will be nothing but a distant memory of an ugly time. 

I have hope that if the Democrats take congress, cooler heads [3] will prevail and not rush to turn Bush into a martyr.  The best thing for this country is to let him – and us – ride out his miserable failures through the next two years of impotence.  Let Bush leave office as he came in – the worst president in US history [4].  Let him stand as a lesson to future generations as to how fragile our democracy is, and how dangerous and self-destructive we can be when we let fear guide our actions. 

I have hope that the White House and the GOP get the message [5] from this election, and use the next two years to atone for their sins.  I hope that the GOP learns humility and bipartisanship so that they can begin to reconcile with those they have victimized at home and abroad.  I hope that this election will send a clear and resounding message to the world – we are sorry, we want peace, we want justice, and we will work our fingers to the bone to make it happen. 

I have hope that a Democratic victory will put an end, once and for all, to the negative [6] campaigning, fraudulent phone calls [7], and power-hungry gerrymandering [8] – not because these are all morally bankrupt in a democracy, not because of some sudden epiphany of light, but simply because we as Americans stood up and sent the message that they just don’t work anymore. 

I have hope that a Democratic victory will not usher in another era of partisanship.  Split government is an important facet of democracy and one-party rule, no matter who is in charge, is just another pig on two legs.  Liberals need Conservatives, Socialists need Libertarians, and Anarchists need Institutionalists – because true wisdom is only in knowing that you know nothing.  None among us has all the answers.  Our government needs to once again become a forum in which to debate ideas, not slogans. 

Like many of you, I wish I had more than my hope.  But I am only one man.  I am only one vote.  The outcome of this election is not mine alone to determine.  And so I wait and hope for all these things and more.  But above all, I am hoping for hope.  I am hoping that tomorrow morning the sun will rise and I will awaken to a government of ideas, a government of sanity, and a government acting in the best interests of America - today and in the future to come. 

Because hope is one thing I’ve been devoid of for nearly six years.  And it’s breaking me.

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