Soapboxin' it, Election Style

We are facing two different Americas right now.  Unlike many of the doom and gloomers on both sides, I disagree that the two Americas would be vastly different – that the election of one candidate would bring about the downfall (or the salvation) of this country.  Ya’ll know I’m an Obama girl, and there are some things that would happen in America if McCain was elected that would make me less proud of my country, less happy in my daily life, less comfortable inside my identity as an American.  But – and yes I am actually praising bureaucratic red tape, and I’d thank you to immediately forget it – change happens slowly.  The cogs of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches require a massive amount of force to turn a tiny bit, with a zillion other tiny toothed gears in between them doing most of the work.  There is much grinding and crashing and squealing where the giant three meet, and sometimes everybody is turning in a different direction and none of the teeth have any bite, and sometimes they all turn together and then they go too fast and we speed and then we get a speeding ticket even though we flirted with the cop and pulled our neckline down just that teeny teasing bit, and then we have to pay a stupid fine and we get all mad at the cop who pulled us over, but we also slow down a little bit in order to avoid getting more tickets because holy heck, we got enough damn points on our license al-freaking-ready.

So.  One tortured metaphor later, what I’m sayin’ here is that there are some substantial things that a President can do that have long-reaching impact (like, say, going to war without making a good plan?), but for the most part it takes some work to make big change in this country, and I think secretly most politicians are making similar choices anyway, with a spin tailored to appeal to their bases.  If Roe v. Wade were overturned, or focus in early education continued to be on punitive rather than supportive measures, or economic plans favored the wealthy and corporations rather than we struggling middle class – I would not be happy.  But I would also not be dead.  And I venture to say to my fretting Republican mother that if Roe v. Wade is bolstered, arts in early education gets more funding because she and my father are taxed much more heavily to pay for it, and we get an economic plan that includes provisions for more socialized health care – she would not be happy.  But she would also survive.  Obama is not going to bring our country down, and neither is McCain. 

I hope my guy wins, though.  😉