Election 2004

I have to say that I miss the overkill in the media of the American election. If I was in Canada I would be making plans to go to a friend's house on Tuesday night to watch the results. We would watch the map of the states become slowly coloured in blue and red - blue along the coasts and red in one big swath across the middle. Kind of representative of the socio-economic status of the entire country.

It's well-known that Canadians have a keen interest in American politics. Our economic well-being is, for better or worse, dependent on the US and for that reason, we take an interest in their politics.

I've missed the emails that would circle around from a few politically-minded coworkers and friends with links to articles in both the international press and alternative web sites. I miss the political jokes that would also make the rounds. I really miss The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Checking out the Comedy Central web site is not the same at all. Funny, if I was back home, I would be crying enough already. Watching it from afar is not nearly as fun. On Tuesday night I'll be going to bed just as the first results start rolling in. By the time I wake up, it will all be over.

I distinctly remember in 2000 watching the election at my friend's place. Gore just won Florida, which meant he won the election. I got home, flicked on the TV as I was getting ready for bed, and in the time it took me to drive home from my friend's house, the state of Florida was now coloured red instead of blue. I was up watching nearly all night. What came out in the following days was even more interesting, but what was shocking was the reaction of the American people. What would have caused full-scale riots in countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela, was not even registering in the US with anything more than a shrug of the shoulders. It has since become clear that the Republican party stole the last presidential election. Will it happen again?

I'll be thinking about you all on Tuesday night as I go to bed. It won't be the same reading about it the next morning on cbc.ca. My bosses at work are pro-Republican so I can't even discuss this with them. I'll have to wait for the email discussions. Again, not nearly as much fun as sitting up watching it with friends and discussing it at work the next morning over coffee.

Just a side note on my bosses. They are only pro-Republican because the head of the company I work for is. They are the biggest sycophants I have ever met in my entire life. I have avoided political discussion with them but I have had to correct them a couple of times because what came out of their mouths was so completely erroneous, I couldn't let it slide. Like when they said Clinton did nothing for foreign policy (but Bush did??). What about the Good Friday accord, which had to do with, uh, Ireland. Or the Middle East peace process. Let's put it this way, the one woman doesn't have any pictures of her husband on her desk, but she has four pictures of the head of the company I work for as well as the book he's written. I was warned about calling it 'the shrine' in front of too many people, but that's what it looks like.

For those of you in the US, vote wisely.

Some links that I have been looking at the last couple of days:
http://www.theonion.com/election2004/
http://www.thestranger.com/current/
http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/thedailyshowwithjonstewart/