Vote for Change

Polls open on the East Coast about 5 hours from now. I feel hope and excitement for the first time in a while. It actually seems theoretically possible that Americans are going to fire some of these Republican assclowns. Of course, I'm restraining my optimism, keeping my expectations in check. Not that I don't think Democrats will win tomorrow. Everything I've seen seems to paint a Democratic takeover of at least the House as practically inevitable. And history seems to indicate that Americans prefer a divided government. It sometimes takes a while to get there, but eventually our citizenry realizes that checks and balances work a lot better than collecting all the influence in just one cabal or another.

6 years of near-constant, grinding Republican rule has perfectly illustrated the dangers of allowing just one group of rich white men to amass all the power, rather than spreading the power around among several groups of different rich white men. Maybe one day, they'll even let a few non-white women share in the pie! I wouldn't hold my breath, though!

So I'm almost positive Democrats will get a lot of votes tomorrow, probably enough to take control of one or more bodies of Congress. Will they actually be elected, though? This one, I'm not so sure about. It's horribly distressing, but I'm at the point of having no confidence whatsoever in the legitimacy of American elections.

I'm thinking, if it's close tomorrow, Republicans will just steal the victory. Democrats no longer simply have to get the most votes. They have to blow Republicans out of the water to such a degree that fudging the numbers is untenable. They have to win in a rout.

Republicans have either stolen or flagrantly attempted to steal the previous two presidential elections. I'm pretty sure 2000 was rigged, that Al Gore won Florida but was mau-maued into conceding defeat, then the Supreme Court came in to make it all nice and legal. (This election was the first time since the election of Rutherford B. Hayes, ending Reconstruction, that a government body actually declared a president rather than relying strictly on the electoral results.)

And 2004 was rife with stories about questionable tactics and outright fraud. (I don't feel like swarming you with a bunch of links no one's going to click anyway. Everything from robocalling and push polling to good old fashioned minority voter suppression.)

So if they're willing to steal elections, and capable of at least making a strong attempt, what's to stop them from just doing it again?

I don't mean for this post to be a downer or an "it's futile so don't vote" message. I strongly urge all of you to vote. And if voting a straight Democratic ticket feels too partisan for you, why not just vote out every single incumbent? That would work for me. Most of the elected officials towards whom I feel any loyalty at all aren't up for re-election this year, and I'd be happy seeing Washington stocked exclusively by new blood this time around.

Even if you live in California. Because, frankly, as much as I want a Democratic majority in the House and Senate, I don't think Dianne Feinstein deserves a win. She's been absolutely atrocious for the past few years.