The United States of America is, as I write this, holding its collective breath and by the time everyone exhales someone will be named Supreme Master of the Universe Ever TM, otherwise known as the President.
It’s been months and months and months of stupid jokes, pointless stories relating to nothing just trying to belittle each other and Jon Stewart just ripping the soul out of the Republican Party at every turn but the day is finally here, voting day. After all the reminders strewn across the internet and the various adverts (some quite entertaining as it happens) you would have thought that everyone on the planet would have a say about who gets to be in control of the big red button and the world’s oil supply for the next 4 years. But when it comes down to it it’s Joe six pack (or Joe the fake plumber) that gets the deciding call in what has gone down as the most important election in US history.
I started following the election in January and have become increasingly scared as the weeks have moved along and the distinction between both Democrat and Republican parties has become more and more evident. For example one candidate decided to choose a running mate with the IQ of a stuffed animal and the political astuteness of a biro. Sarah Palin, I can happily say, has managed to lose John McCain the election. A bold move to try and win women voters over (by the way if you look at her policies they don’t show any bias towards women, so why vote for her just because she’s a woman?) by Mr. McCain. Bravo, I assume you checked her out, you know, just to make sure she doesn’t have any shall we say “skeletons in the closet”, oh you didn’t I’m sure it will be ok…..oh wait….
It’s not just Palin’s stupidity and “Maverick” that puts her well above and beyond the call of duty as a figure head for the reason that some people shouldn’t be allowed to run for any political office, no, It’s that she’s average. “Average?!” you say “what wrong with being average?!!!” well it’s more worrying when your running mate is pushing 80 and is actually at around the average life expectancy of the average American. So if he kicks the bucket we are left with the average American Sarah Palin whose foreign policy seems to revolve solely around trade missions from Alaska to Russia (as stated in an interview she did with CBS’s Katie Couric). This is not to mention the now infamous John McCain statement that America would stay in Iraq for another 100 years. Well that’s foreign policy sorted, trade missions with Russia and war with Iraq, and so I guess there’s nothing left to worry about then is there?
By the same thread however I’m not deadset on Obama; he doesn’t have a lot of experience and could well make a mess of things and embodies the same rhetoric as Palin or Hillary Clinton supporters with their women voting for women, in that he’s black (in case you didn’t know) and thus people vote for him because of this.
I don’t know about anyone else who’s reading this but I was raised colour blind to the point where he is simply a human being, the reason I want this guy to win is because his policies will change the way we look at America. The education system will no longer be the quagmire that it is and children will be brought up to know the capital of their own country. His promises are of withdrawal from Iraq, reformed healthcare (so people aren’t left out in the cold to fend for themselves) and what’s more important is that he realises there are problems outside those of getting oil, such as genocides and civil war with Sudan and Somalia, these problems didn’t just resolve themselves people, like HIV, THE PROBLEM IS STILL THERE.
Since it’s only been about 120 years since the slavery was abolished and about just under 50 years since the Civil Rights movement it is an incredible accomplishment for a black man to even run for president let alone win. And to my recollection this is the first positive step forward for humankind I can remember being alive for, sad isn’t it? I remember wars started, murder trials and various problems like a rise in knife crime, now having to protect my identity more so than ever and now a prevalent economic recession. No good like women being given the vote, man walking on the moon or the end of any war. We should all be walking around with “I was born in the 1990s and the only good thing that’s happened is a sheep got cloned” T-shirts.
So, basically it comes down to this, who would we rather see being sworn in; in January, a man with hope and change as middle names or an old man and his dog?
Sadly I can’t leave it up to you (unless you’re American,18 and currently living there in which case, vote for OBAMA, not the other guys) but we can but hope that something good comes out of this, and if it doesn’t, well, you never know the dog might be able to do some tricks.
OLI BALLON
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