Alright, America.

You’ve learned your lesson. Kerry wasn’t the guy to defeat Emperor Bush. Oh speaking of which I may decide to finally start calling him “President” now…
But while I registered solely to vote a megalomaniacal upper-class twit out of office, I will continue to vote for the things I believe in and against the things that I don’t. Davidson county (Nashville, TN) elected Kerry president – so I have seen my vote count. In four years I have seen my worst fears about Bush mostly come true and have silently been hoping that someone good would run against him. Kerry was decent, but I still disagreed with him on a couple issues, as opposed to Bush’s across-the-board stance on things which were small-minded and backward, especially on the environment and education – at least to me. Parents weren’t in an uproar about education five years ago and now they are. The world didn’t think we were total idiot bastards five years ago and now they do. Things have to change – and once upon a time I would have voted Republican – you know, the guys who are all about government staying out of our business, religion and lives? That doesn’t sound like the Republicans of today, does it? I’m not sure WHAT they stand for anymore – free enterprise supposedly, but especially the kind where one gigantic company eats up smaller ones. Democrats were once about government getting involved – taxing the rich and giving it to the poor, breaking up monopolies and ensuring job security for small businesses – and yet Clinton signed a bill giving the green light to companies like ClearChannel to start buying ALL of the radio stations in the country (clearchannel currently commands 60% of the radio stations out there – AND it owns Ticketmaster, right?). Eventually all of the TV stations will be owned by one company, ensuring that we get nothing but the best of the best news specifically to make us happy. We’ll sit down to dinner with the “Family”, take our happy pills and watch what the government wants us to see. I say that because I have read Fahrenheit 451 and I see it coming, and because when businesses become that big, they are government. The Republicans are out to screw us over, and the Democrats are incapable of helping us for shooting us in the foot. Third parties, thanks to our system of government, have no chance of winning – the electoral college is Republican and Democrat. I think there’s one “weirdo” third party guy in the college but don’t quote me on that.

I personally would like to see the government get involved to do things like enforce antitrust laws, to protect the little guy. It preserves our way of life, I think. Then they need to take their anti-this and anti-that laws and go screw themselves. Fear-based laws don’t fly in my book. I see more problems than solutions here, I see a big lumbering country that in just a few short years has changed the world’s perception of it from wise peacekeeper to immature aggressor. We won’t listen to our parents and keep running off and getting in trouble, don’t we, UN? The guy supposedly in charge of this country can continue to be a mouthpiece for the idiot dirtbags you people out there in la-la land voted into congress. But from now on, I’d like us as a country to vote in every election – the presidential election actually matters the least, for many reasons. I’m talking about local government, I’m talking about the US senate and the house. We have to try actually ignoring parties, looking at platforms and issues and voting for people who will personally represent us at every level. The yokel who sits in the white house will rarely, if ever, be anything like what I’d like. But maybe he’ll be the regular everyday Joe who will temper my unusual beliefs with practicality and, with a cool head and clear mind, do the right thing for the american people rather than himself – he might even make me proud to be an American when I’m in a foreign land. I’d feel good about paying taxes, even.

And when that President became too powerful, we’d have layers upon layers of elected officials prepared to check and balance his power with clear mandates from the people.
It’s called a Republic, people. That’s the kind of government we are. We may not be happy with who the other guy voted into office, but we can make sure that locally our voices are heard and that we will be represented. We can make sure that locally, the elected officials are running the school system better than the National government ever could. We can make sure that peoples’ rights in our district are being protected. We personally have little power on a national level – we’re not meant to. But we can locally manage our government, and we can keep casting our votes for whichever slimy bastard running for congress best represents us.

I don’t feel like the world is ending because we finally have elected this clown into office. I just feel like I have more responsibility as a citizen to stay informed and to vote – which ARE our two duties as citizens. Maybe, if we keep doing that over the next four years, we won’t have a situation where many of us are voting against someone rather than voting for someone we believe in. Wouldn’t that be nice?

You can’t just roll over and die because your guy lost. Now you have to straighten this government out from the bottom to the top in the elections over the next four years. Maybe you’ll still be in the minority but at least they know you’re there.