Election Day

Midterm elections are today.

If one more person asks me if I've voted, starts talking about their party affiliation, or generally brings up politics at all, I'm going to shove carrots in my ears, stick out my tongue, and go PBBBBTTTTLLLL.

Originally, this post was going to be much longer than it is now. But I found myself going on an ideological rant against American politics in general. It actually felt good to refine my thoughts to the point of committing them to writing, but the results serve me better in the writing than it would you in the reading. So I'll spare you the extended edition in favour of the sound bites edition:

• U.S. citizens get loud and stupid about politics.
• The Tea Party movement discomforts me.
• I have high hopes for the G.O.P. My main hope is that when they retake the House and Senate, they will focus on governing more than merely crushing the democrats.
• President Obama may not be the great leader for whom everyone was hoping. But he has a good head on his shoulders, and that counts for a lot in my book.
• I need more carrots.

And with that out of the way, I leave you with a discovered treasure that I am sure to make many many times in the near future. Though as of yet untested, this looks like a chocolate & peanut butter treat to appease the gods of angry voters: Buckeyes, from the Smitten Kitchen. With something like this, nothing can frustrate me. Not the fact that I have carrots in my ears, nor that I need to stick more of them in. Not even that I should really be studying for tomorrow's 5 hour midterm instead of blogging.

So, in closing, I leave one political thought that doesn't bother me about our democracy. This is from Aaron Sorkin, via the West Wing's Josh Lyman. He was talking about radical extremists at the time, but I find it the best solution to deal with short-sightedness and pride.

"You want to get these people? You really want to reach in and kill 'em where they live? Then keep accepting more than one idea. Makes them absolutely crazy."