True despair...

Sometimes, I'm talking once in a very long while, I despair for humanity. I've decided that today is one of those times. I've also decided that the American People shouldn't be allowed the right to vote. Or run for office.

I understand that this is a time when the country needs to feel united, and maybe it's to this end that Kerry thinks it's okay to just give up. But that's what it is, just giving up. And the country is no more united than it yesterday.

I know for a fact that a lot of the provisional ballots won't be counted until after Thanksgiving, and I'm willing to bet that a good chunk, say 80% of them are Kerry votes. We've all heard the stories about probable Kerry voters getting turned away or having the grand mindfuck played upon them so they'll just give up and leave. If they were smart enough to insist on their right, they were given provisional ballots. And if those aren't counted until after Thanksgiving and Kerry gives up today, all the fighting was for nothing.

In fairness, maybe the guy to run the country is the one who was prepared to give his victory speech before the votes were even counted. Yeah, sure, he's fucked up the country and the rest of the planet, making enemies out of friends and tracking imaginary bad guys, but at least he's decisive.

Probably the guy who's willing to give up before the numbers are even in is not the person you want in charge of your lives. But at least he has a global conscience, and that was one of the things that made the planet hold it's breath and keep it's fingers crossed.

It's not doing me any good to try and present this in a mature, calm and intelligent manner, so allow me to say this: This. Is. Fucking. Bullshit.

Deal with it. And you will. Unfortunately the rest of us will have to, too. Those of us who are standing outside, looking in, able to come to an un-emotional decision, able to see the effect your actions have on the rest of the planet, those of us are the ones who will be paying with you. Paying with you without the right to do anything about it. Paying with you without the right to say anything that's on our minds, because we're the invisible majority. Yeah, America's all-powerful, but it's the all in that sentence that scares me most.

Democracy is dead. It's a fact. When people are turned away from speaking their minds in the most free country in the world, that's not democracy. When people are bullied into conceeding and giving up their views, that's not democracy. When people who like Howard Stern run the risk of not being allowed to listen to him by government decree because the other group aren't smart enough to just turn off their radio, that's not democracy. When social moores are shaken by a nipple, something which everyone on the planet has, that is not democracy.

When it's okay to give up when the numbers aren't even in; When one day you're screaming that you'll fight for every vote, that every voice will be heard, then conceed before those voices have even warmed up; When you ignore the evidence of a war no one wanted and tax breaks that only help the highest common denominator, democracy, justice and just a general feeling of what's right in the world takes a final gasp to make sure the death rattle's a good one.

So, the people have spoken, and they've spoken for someone who isn't interested in a word they have to say. This is the last time you'll have a say for quite a long time, and I hope you enjoyed it. Congratulations.