This is the obligatory Election Day post.
It is, we're told, the most important election of our lifetime...or at least since the last one, when we were told the same. The mid-terms put the Democrats back in charge of congress, but it's funny how things didn't really change. Team Bush still managed to slam through deregulation of environmental protections, expand the ability of the government to spy on its own citizens and extend the war in Iraq, all with relatively little squawking from the Loyal Opposition.
And if Obama wins--as everyone assumes he will--things won't really going change as radically as everyone hopes. Given his choice of consummate BS artist Joe Biden as his running mate, it's easy to predict Obama's team will be full of the usual insiders. Sure, they tilt slightly more to the left than any of the disciples of Sith Lord Cheney, but that's not really saying much. We're still doomed, it's just that we'll head to hell a little more slowly.
Nah, I don't want to be too cynical. An Obama presidency will mean, if nothing else, a Supreme Court not stocked by dangerous right-wing lunatics, no rollback of abortion rights, perhaps a merciful end to the continued national shame of Gitmo. I don't think Obama is a committed lefty and I don't expect miracles from him, but he at least seems to be care about more than his own power, and even if he's only pretending, at least that's a start.
Maybe it's not Hope, or Change I Can Believe In, but it's the best we can do right now.
