Just 5 Days...

and I'm voting Republican. Wait! Wait. Before you snort in disgust and click 'next blog' so violently that your mouse breaks, let me reassure you that I'm not exactly voting for Dubya. Just let me tell you why my black graphite bands will help tie it up for the GOP, and you have my leave to disagree, and to tell me so. I am not anti-Democrat, anti-Kerry, or anti-Liberal, except in some instances. But who the hell said politics is black and white? How can it be, when it's a reflection of society's imbalance? How can a government of the United States be expected to perfectly serve every citizen in it, when our needs are so different?

I won't profess to be extremely politically savvy. I don't take or have the time to research the issues. I know enough to know I don't agree with Bush on some things, like abortion. I'm pro-choice, because I'm all about control. I think he's kindof absorbed in some notions about religion and morality that I'd probably find extreme, but that's ok. Whatever gets him through the day. He's just a man. I am pro-war, because I've travelled a bit and read a ton, and cultural richness aside, I think our quality of life here in the US is generally better than a lot of places, and we're willing to stick our necks out and look bad trying to make it good for others, too. Some far-off day it will be obvious whether our actions in Iraq were justified, but rest assured, you and I will not live to see that day. We look too close to us; we look within our lifetimes and try to discern instant results, and folks, they just aren't there. Of course not. But even if just one inhabitant of Iraq sleeps better tonight, and he or she is a good person who deserved better than what he or she had before we went, well then I'm glad we've done what we've done. I can't help it. I'm all about the small things.

I'm voting Republican for many reasons, but mostly because somebody told me to. There! I said it. It's not that I can't decide for myself, and it isn't that I don't care, or that somebody's forcing me. I am not one of the uninformed contingency, the undecideds that people have been ranting about, despite that confession. It's just that I trust a few people so much that I'm certain, on pain of death, that they know what's good for me. Dad and I don't always agree, but I know that he knows what's best for now. Even though the government's let him down- a pending Parkinson's diagnosis and the possibility of three years without health coverage of any kind- he still cares and hopes enough to look at the parties, look at their issues, look at the candidates, and think about what he'd like the world to be like for me when he's gone. There are other people, too, whose opinions I treasure and trust, and I just feel comfortable with their abilities to reason and the amount of research that led to their conclusions. Kerry's pro-stem cell research, which might be Dad's only chance at a normal life again, and he's still looking unselfishly at the big picture. It's got to be hard.

Voting for the President of the United States shouldn't be an easy choice. Anyone who tells you "the choice is clear" is an idiot. It's not. But it is your choice, ours, each, and I've made mine. Maybe it'll cancel yours out, and we'll sit together and be friends while the rest of the nation decides. Either way I'd still rather be here than in Cambodia, where a new president was just elected, a former ballet dancer, according to Paul Harvey. Snicker. Sorry. I'm sure he'll do great.