Election Notes

Well, congratulations to President Obama and the Democrats.

So here are just a few thoughts on the election before I move on to other things.

1. Apparently I am the only Republican on Twitter.
2. I'm thrilled to be able to vote even when my guy didn't win.
3. Teaching my son how elections work and discussing politics with my daughters has been wonderful.
4. Telling my son that we support Obama as our President, even when we disagree, brought tears to my eyes
5. Having to explain the attacks on Romney for his faith did the same thing.
6. Both parties needs to grow up, play nice, and stop demonizing each other.  If I call you the Devil today, how can I shake your hand tomorrow?
7. Romney is a Christian, Obama is NOT a Muslim, let's move on.
8. The voting system needs to be fixed.  Seriously, can't we get this worked out?
   Move the election to a Saturday, standardize the voting machines, train the workers, establish the rules for every county, take the local officials out of it, and make it work.  We are arguing over voting technologies that are 50+ years old.  
9. My twitter feed was full of angry, and somewhat paranoid posts from Romney haters when I woke up this morning.  Even in victory they were depressing.
10. I want to get a real number of polling places that had problems with either intimidation, improperly asking for ID, lack of voting supplies, etc.  If you believe Twitter, old handicapped grandmothers were being attacked by right-wing mobs and forced to vote Republican while their grand kids were sent to sweat shops in China.
11. Jon Stewart is still the best report on Television   http://www.thedailyshow.com/
12. Next year, instead of debates, I want the two leading candidates locked in a room with a list of problems, $10 million in cash, and a white board.  Armed only with 2 pizzas and some Red Bull, they can't come out until they have agreed on how to spend it.  The whole discussion would be on  live TV.
13. The Vice Presidential candidates would have to run a 5K.  I want a strong backup.
14. Romney lost because he never connected at an emotional level and he let others define him.
15. I want to interview all the evangelicals who didn't vote for Romney for religious reasons, how are you feeling now?
16. Our ignorance and intolerance over religious differences bothers me, it shows a lack of intellectual honesty, understanding, and empathy, and that goes for believers and atheists alike.  Not believing in God is must as much a belief system as believing.  
17. The Red/Blue map is much more interesting if you break it down by county instead of states.  Go look it up.
18. California Voters are, unfortunately, idiots (and I say that in the most loving way). We voted to raise our own taxes, let prisoners out of jail, coerce political donations for the unions, give money to politicians who lie about how it will be used, fund a bullet train to no where, drive companies out of state by raising their taxes, and force porn stars to wear condoms.  When will we ever learn.
19. I'm glad marijuana is more legal in more places and that gay marriage passed in others.  Don't tell my church friends, but I think gay people have the right to be unhappy just like the rest of us.
20. As a fan of politics and an engaged citizen, I'm deeply discouraged at the state of political discourse in this country.  We are too angry, to "dug in", to fearful to have meaningful discussion.  Good ideas from both parties are attacked, compromise is seen as weakness, and the media pours gas on every spark and the whole world is in flames.
21. The American people are becoming too dependent on their government to take care of them, there is a spirit of entitlement, a laziness that has crept in.  We pass laws to control our eating, our sex lives, our driving, our money, our education, we want to be spoon fed the answers to life's most basic questions and it is pathetic.  The right want's to control the bedroom, the left wants our money. The people in the middle, well, they are too lazy to stand up for themselves and tell the govt. to stop it. "Get out of my family, my job, my bed, my bank account!"  But, I digress.
22. In the end, I am an optimist.  America has survived a host of problems, and we will figure out the current ones too.  If we can get the debt under control, starting playing nice, bring our troops back home, and let people do what people do best (have sex and go to work), then we'll be OK.

I sincerely hope for Obama to be healthy, wise, considerate, insightful, and that all those around him are the same.  His future is my future, and, well, we are stuck with each other for four more years.  

:-)

Oh, and I'm glad that Republican Rep. Todd Akin  lost, he is an idiot.