Four More Years

Of Stagnation, Whining, and the Status Quo, that is.

Most of you already know I'm not american, so please don't interpret this sudden attention to the recent Presidential Election as being about personal preferences over, say, reasoned thought. I tried very hard to avoid any mention of the American elections in the months leading up to them simply because I thought it would be untoward to engage in electioneering from another country altogether.

Having said that, I have the unfortunate luck in having a Prime Minister and Capbinet that would very literally jump off of bridges if the President of the United States so ordered, regardless of who that president seems to be, which means that there is a very real extent to which we actually do feel the impact of those elections.

In that respect I can call this election a disappointment - not because I didn't want Obama to win (I don't really have a horse in that race, apart from thinking Romney an idiot), but because the American public managed to split tickets, again.

Now don't get me wrong, I split tickets myself when I vote around here. I want the right person with the right ideas for the job regardless of party, or else I'd porbably just vote straight Green and waste my ballot. The problem I have is that, while that approach works in a multi-party system, the US two-party system doesn't allow it. You end up with a White House of one party and a House of Representatives of the other party, and absolutely bugger-all gets done in the next four years.

Now, the democrats did take back the senate.. with the tiniest majority I have ever seen, mind you... which I suppose is something. Still, it's not going to help much for anything besides confirming political apointees... which is something I never thought should be decided on party lines to begin with. It's all a little frustrating, and would make a good season eight of The West Wing. Fun fact, though: I wouldn't have voted for Matt Santos, dem or not. Vinnick was the clear better choice, no matter how much I liked the other guys.

For those of you who are treating this as the end of democracy in your country, quoting Trump or Alexis de Toqueville or Jefferson, bear in mind that the left did the same thing when you gave them four more years of bush. In the last several decades, the election has largely been a formality. I can think of only a few presidents in my partents' lifetimes that only served 4 years instead of eight.

People actually like the status quo, regardless of how dire it seems, it seems.