“The suspense is terrible.  I hope it will last!”
-Oscar Wilde

We’re down to the wire, all that’s ahead of us are long lines, the guaranteed problems at various poling places, the interminable coverage of 24 hour news stations, and finally the announcement of our new Commander-in-Chief. 

An end to the name calling (“pig”-with or without lipstick, “socialist,” “geezer,” whatever), the campaigning, the mud-slinging, and the general all-pervasiveness of the whole shebang.  I’m ready for the talk to be over and the walk to start.  I’ve been frustrated with how both of the major candidates (the fact that the other parties haven’t received much attention is a completely different annoyance) started by talking about ending bipartisan politics and in the end it seems the election is more partisan than ever.  I’m sick of the skewing of the media in both directions.  I’m most annoyed by the fact that people seem to have forgotten that we are a republic and that most of the power of actually running the country is supposed to be vested in the House and Senate, but next to nobody has mentioned who’s running or the track record of those already in offices (whose technical job it is to deal with taxes, check the other branches of government, declare and finance wars…hm…most of which seems to have come up in this campaign…).

But despite my annoyances with the almost two year slog, I have to say a lot of good may be coming out of this election, regardless of who wins.  I’ve enjoyed seeing my age group get excited and more importantly involved in the politics of our country.  I’m glad to see the huge numbers of people who registered for the first time or are turning out to vote in record smashing numbers.  Major issues like the development of the energy industry, international relations, economic trends, and others have been vigorously debated.  Change has been the catchword and in my personal opinion change is a good thing because of what it represents.

Our country is founded on ideals, ones we haven’t always managed to live up to, but ones we are constantly striving towards throughout our history.  Even when we veer off track, I believe that at the core our ideals are noble and powerful.  To me, change represents people trying to make things better, even if the way we try to go about it is imperfect.  It usually is.  Doesn’t mean the goal is less noble. 

I hope this involvement with the government sticks around, because that’s the way it’s supposed to be.  I’ve lived and been a lot of places in the world and we Americans have a good thing going here, in spite of problems, shortcomings, and dissapointments.  Also, the world is no longer quite as big as it was, it behooves us all to know what exactly is going on out there.  The predominantly lazy attitude towards political events both at home and abroad can’t continue because like it or not they will affect us, another reason to be glad of the huge involvment of the “demos” part of our “democracy.” 

Get out and vote.  And please, even after this particular election is over, stay involved and in the know.  Because in another 4 years we’re going to do this all over again, and even if the hype isn’t as big, we’ll probably still be dealing with issues that are just as important.  That may sound depressing, but I don’t mean it to.  To me it’s a glorious thing to think that we’re in charge of our fate, let’s shoulder our responsibility with intelligence, pride, and enthusiasm!