blah-ba-dee blah blah

I am ready for this election to be over. What's frustrating me, and making me want this endless campaign to end, is my increasing realization that so many people around me, whom I otherwise love and respect, have opinions that diverge from mine in so many fundamental ways that I wonder if I ever actually knew them.

Take the Obama/McCain issue. For me, it would be absolute madness to put John McCain and Sarah Palin in the White House. But for so many people, my neighbor, my family, my wife (depending on the day), McCain is the only game in town. Are you kidding me!?!?!?!?

I've spent no less than 9 months figuring out who I would vote for in this election. I read Obama's biography, I followed McCain's policies, and for awhile it was tough because my two favorite picks actually made it out of their primary. I didn't think it was really possible that both Obama and McCain would win their primaries, so I had resolved that if one made it out of the primary but the other didn't, that's who I would vote for. Of course that was before McCain morphed from his historically independent self to party-line-toeing. But anyway, they both won, and I was faced with a dilemma: which dark horse (no racism intended there) to vote for?

I won't spend useless time justifying my decision to anyone who has time to read this post, but I ultimately came down to one inexorable conclusion: that Obama, for all his faults, is the only rational choice in this election. But then so many people I see every day, people whose opinions I otherwise value highly, will never vote for Obama. And that's the precise point that has gotten under my skin and won't work it's way out: that those with whom we ordinarily feel so close can, by virtue of one single issue, make use feel like they are not the people we thought they were, but someone totally different, someone we wouldn't stop to say hello to.

Is it me valuing my own opinion too highly? Or simply taking this election too seriously? I don't know, and I wish I did, because it would make my days much better lately. But something tells me this election is putting under a microscope a simple fact of human relationships: that there are deal-breaker issues that, in and of themselves, will make us either want to be around people or want to push them away with full force. This election is one deal breaker for me (at least until all the votes are counted and Obama wins). Perhaps age will cause me to mellow and be more accepting of other's views, but that's the other deal: normally I'm a very accepting person!! Usually I can see the other side of the coin. But lately, I just can't. Maybe this presidential campaign has worked on my ability to accept views I deep down find absurd. Maybe after the "dust" has settled, I will re-center my understanding nature and go on with my happy little existence. But until then, just humor me and say you're voting for Obama. It will make me not want to scream at you.