Country Pains

In two days time we will have our presidential election.  It's neck and neck and I'm really not sure who will win.  Obviously I hope very much that Obama wins, and I have already voted by absentee ballot- not that it matters much, as a New York voter, my state pretty much always goes democratic for president.  But the state of my country is worse than embarrassing, it's actually deeply disturbing.

It happened around the time of Reagan and heading into Bush senior, that politics started to become more and more divided.  This reached a new milestone with the persecution of Clinton and the mud slinging that happened around the Lewinski affair.  Since then, our politics have become more and more polarized.  The country less and less able to make decisions that motivate or inspire the public as a whole.  When I look at the state of my country, I see a place on the verge of some sort of collapse.  I don't blame this wholly on the bipolar state of the country, because as much as Americans would like to think otherwise, the current economic crisis is not unique to the States and the States will not be able to "get out of it" without the rest of the world "getting out of it too".

Still, I see no easy way for the States to heal the rift that seems to continue to spread.  I read political posts saying that their candidate is sure to win a "landslide".  I suggest that these writers look up the phrase and we all accept that no matter who wins the presidency, it will not be won by a landslide and the rift will continue to grow.  It's time we all realize that it's not about who wins and who loses but it's about compromise and that no one should be getting 100% of what they want.  This is a terrible time for American politics and for America.

I want Obama to win because I think he is the best chance America has for limping along and successfully navigating the current global crisis.  Yes, we survived eight years of W, but I don't think we can survive four more years of extreme right wing economic policy under Romney.  On the other hand... is it merely postponing the inevitable?  Is global western power meltdown inevitable?  Would it actually be better to hasten this destruction to let the world be reborn in whatever new form it is going to take?  Of course, if it happens, I fear that the BRIC countries will be the ones to rise to power.  Are they ready or capable of addressing the global problems we all face or under their leadership would it seal the fate of billions of human beings and destroy the capacity for the planet to easily maintain human life to the level we currently enjoy?

Don't get me wrong- I don't worry about "the planet".  Climate change and global eco-system collapse won't kill the planet.  But it will kill off an unthinkable amount of human beings.  We can't keep consuming and polluting and keep going the way that we are going now.  Something will have to change.  Something will eventually happen that will be catastrophic.  And we will all suffer because of it.  Is it wrong to wish to postpone it?  Or like a band-aid would it be better to rip it off quickly, although it would mean that a good part of my life may be unpleasant because of it?

Well, I already voted.  Because too many people have fought and died for me to have the right to do so.  And I believe in civic responsibility.  Still, I don't vote for who I think is the best, rather I vote for who I think is the least worse.  I voted for the tiny slim chance I think exists to avert catastrophe.  But I'm afraid that it may already be too late.