What To Do?

With election day bearing down on us (the polls open in 38 1/2 hrs), what are we going to do when this is all over? Will we continue our harsh criticisms of each other's candidates in class? It sure will be strange. Everyone seems to be suffering from campaign fatigue except for Bill Maher who on Friday declared this the best election season of his lifetime. That very well may be the case, but it's time for this to be over. Time Magazine published a wonderful article today about how much has changed over the course of this election season. Just by judging the before and after pictures of Barack Obama, you can see that this campaign season is running on fumes. Both candidates are physically and mentally exhausted. Endless events on a daily basis running from sunrise until way past sunset, with a few hours of sleep thrown in between.

 This is getting old. What else can Obama and McCain say to sway voters? They have thrown everything but the kitchen sink into this campaign, and the sink may get thrown in sometime before polls close Tuesday evening.  Now I love politics as much as the next political junkie, but there gets a point when you have to give your drug a rest. Peace and tranquility is what this junkie needs now. An endless supply of partisan bull is exactly the kind of medicine a madman would want at this point. For those of us that have been riding this train since the beginning, it's time to pull it into the station. Let's not throw anymore coal into the engine. This seems unlikely. There will be long lines, accusations of voter fraud, purging of voters, illegal activities on all sides. No one wants this to go past the wee hours on November 5th. If you do, please feel free to invest in Georgia's new private mental health facilities, you could use them. 

Personally, I'm looking forward to a relaxing month of December. Close out this semester of school, plow through my ever-growing reading list and sit back and enjoy. No more late night conference calls, fewer emails, and hopefully just wonderful stories about American democracy holding up another bizarre election process. Face it, you're tired too and just won't admit it. How many fruitless debates can you get into with a friend/colleague over this election? Unless you thrive on anger, I suggest you join me in calling for a peaceful return to class on Wednesday (and in this class's case, Thursday) and begin to discuss something other than the ridiculous crap thrown around in the past two years. I for one, enjoy my hair not either falling out or turning grey by the time I'm 25. Until then folks, enjoy tomorrow and Tuesday and may we all come back together as Americans when this concludes. Perhaps then we can all look at the monumental challenges ahead of us, put our hands together and get to work. That's what we do, it's democratic, it's American, and that's something that makes us all so proud. 

Until then...