My only commentary on the election:
Whoever Wins, Chill A BitI'm not an Obama fan, particularly, but a lot of people I like and respect are. To treat Obama as something evil or subhuman would not only be disrespectful toward Obama, but toward them. Instead, I hope that if Obama is elected, their assessment of his strengths will turn out to be right, and mine will turn out to be wrong. Likewise, those who don't like John McCain or Sarah Palin might reflect that by treating Palin and McCain as obviously evil and stupid, they're disrespecting tens of millions of their fellow Americans who feel otherwise. And treating a presidency held by a guy you don't like as presumptively illegitimate suggests that presidents rule not by election, but by divine right, so that whenever the "other guy" wins, he's automatically a usurper.
We don't have to agree on issues, or on leaders. But if we can't agree that a free and fair election can produce a legitimate president even when it's not the candidate we like, then we've got a very serious problem.
emphasis mine
I used to be the type of person who really enjoyed following and talking politics. Believe it or not, there was a not insignificant portion of my courting of maggiesox that involved us speaking, debating, and rationally discussing any number of political points. That was all a long time ago...
Now? Can't stand it. Hate it. Hate talking about it. Hate hearing about it. Hell, I used to LOVE watching The Daily Show and Bill Mahr. And the things Reynolds mentions in this column (the outright derangement when it comes to 'the other side', from both sides of the aisle) directly contributed to my reversal.
So today? Today, I don't celebrate a historic election. I celebrate it being over, so I can have some peace.
(Until the race for 2012 inevitably starts on Thursday... :-p )
We don't have to agree on issues, or on leaders. But if we can't agree that a free and fair election can produce a legitimate president even when it's not the candidate we like, then we've got a very serious problem.
emphasis mine
I used to be the type of person who really enjoyed following and talking politics. Believe it or not, there was a not insignificant portion of my courting of maggiesox that involved us speaking, debating, and rationally discussing any number of political points. That was all a long time ago...
Now? Can't stand it. Hate it. Hate talking about it. Hate hearing about it. Hell, I used to LOVE watching The Daily Show and Bill Mahr. And the things Reynolds mentions in this column (the outright derangement when it comes to 'the other side', from both sides of the aisle) directly contributed to my reversal.
So today? Today, I don't celebrate a historic election. I celebrate it being over, so I can have some peace.
(Until the race for 2012 inevitably starts on Thursday... :-p )