vote your conscience...

So it comes down to today. Thank goodness, at least we will be shut of campaign ads (if not commentary) after today.

So, go out and vote. If you haven't made up your mind, make an effort to find some kind of unbiased source (or a couple of opposing, if biased, sources), read up, and choose the person that you think will do best for the country. (And not just for you. One of my concerns is that as a populace we're becoming more of a "gimme gimme gimme and screw the other guy" group, who want our leaders to be Santa Claus.)

I will express two little, possibly-contrarian (and I hate it when people are contrarian merely for the sake of stirring the pot) opinions:

1. If you really are poorly-informed, if you are voting based on who is better-looking, who is more charismatic, who seems more "exciting" to you - in other words, if you gave the issues zero consideration - DON'T FRICKING VOTE.

Seriously. I have enough experience with "charismatic" people who turned out to be jerks and charlatans - perhaps not in politics, but in my daily life. I know some people who are smiling glad handers, very slick and charming, but I've learned to count my fingers and check to be sure my wallet's still in my purse after shaking hands with them.

Likewise, if you're like the woman I heard calling in to a radio program who claimed she was going to go into a voting booth and flip a coin - DON'T FRICKING VOTE. Seriously. It is people like that women who lead some commentators to opine that perhaps the vote should be removed from women. Don't give my gender a bad name by being an idiot about voting.

If you are voting one way solely because your family, your co-workers, or your friends told you to - you should also probably not be voting. Learn to understand the issues. Stand on your own feet. Don't be a minion of people who may not have your, or the country's, best interests at heart. My experience is, among my friends and co-workers, at least 50% are more poorly-informed than I am on matters like this. It's like cheating off someone stupider than you on a test - it can only hurt you.

And 2. A commentator this morning observed that this was one of the most "emotional" campaigns of recent years. And that is what I think is so wrong with it. Emotion should not enter into it to the degree that it has. When people get ruled by their emotions, they tend to get stupid. Stupid enough to go along with something that's not right for the country. Perhaps even stupid enough to go along with something that is evil. (Remember the footage from Nazi Germany? Hitler was GREAT at playing on people's emotions)

Don't get me wrong - I don't believe either candidate is evil or wants to DO evil. But I worry that we are heading down a dangerous path by letting ourselves be ruled more by our hearts than our heads in a matter like this. Already you see what happens with some of the more unhinged supporters on either side: threatening to kill people, threatening to do things like "go John Galt" (a/k/a "cutting off your nose to spite your face" by resigning from an interesting, well-paid career out of fear that an Obama presidency will tax them into oblivion, and working some damn menial job).

And I think a lot of the current unpleasantness - the fact that I don't DARE talk politics around certain people - is due to the fact that people have become excessively personally emotionally invested in the process. (I think it's fine to be proud to be voting AS AN AMERICAN. Or to be excited that a candidate may bring change or improvement. But when people invest themselves personally so much in the outcome of a race - to the point where, as in every election, certain individuals are threatening to "move to Canada" if a particular candidate wins - it just doesn't lead to anything good).

I tend to be suspicious of an overage of emotion; perhaps that's a personal failing I have. I don't like being in the grips of strong emotion; it feels like being out of control. Perhaps I'm projecting onto other people but it does seem to me that some of the more emotionally-invested sorts seem to sometimes be a bit out of control.

Part of the problem is the news media benefits from whipping up emotion - in any way, shape, or form that they can. And I've learned for me, it's best to opt out of that - I don't like the fear or the anger or any of that.

I try to make a reasoned choice. I voted early; I voted my conscience. I voted for who I thought would do the best job based on what I had read from a variety of sources. This individual may be "your" candidate; he may not. I hope if he wins that he does a good job. I hope that at least a few of the things he plans to do come to pass. I (mainly) hope we're not worse off four years from now.

And I hope that this election can end in a classy way. I hope there aren't people screaming at each other tomorrow. I hope there aren't people going around making dark allusions to plots and complicity and fraud (though I suspect if a particular candidate wins, I will have colleagues doing just that).

And I hope we can somehow begin to work together again. To stop deciding whether someone gets to remain a friend or not based on how they choose to vote. To stop talking about what goes on in damn Washington when there's stuff that can be done right here in our own backyards - rather than sitting around and waiting for Santa President to shower goodness on us. For us to go out and pick up trash, or drive for Meals on Wheels, or tutor a kid - to do all the stuff that we've always done, that makes us good people as Americans, instead of sitting around talking about politics (which really, honestly, beyond voting, we do not control) and to deal with the stuff we DO have some control over.