Election: Like It or Lump It

     It's what we got.  If Mr. Obama is a dedicated hardcore gun-grabbin' Marxist, you don't need to sound the alarm, he'll go all Shirker's Paradise an' start after your ARK-1547ses.  If he's a fuzzy-philosophied narcissist with jerk friends (like most Presidents), he will continue muddling on, blamin' Big Business and Wall Street (while bailing them out just like he and his total opposite Mr. Bush already did); the fed.gov will continue to have an indefinite-detention prison camp at Guantanamo and the .mil will still be boots-on-the-ground in Iraq and Afghanistan (just like he and his total opposite Mr. Bush already did) and the claimed right to kill anyone, anywhere, by frikkin' robot drones or a uniformed-services guy with a dedicated look in his eye and an M-4 or a long, heavy needle (just like he and his total opposite Mr. Bush already did), possibly based on secret hearings in a secret court (just like he and his total opposite Mr. Bush already did) or possibly mere Presidential whim.

     And you wanna tell me you're all het up about healthcare* and the different-length-fused time bombs of taxes, deficits and Federal entitlements?

     The first would've been a mess either way, just a different kind of mess and a different fight in Congress depending on how the elections turned out.  The problem there isn't the Presidency so much as it was the Senate, where the GOP threw away two seats over the social-conservative non-issue of abortion after having lured themselves into a game of where-to-draw-the-line with pro-choice folks.  Yes, a non-issue: very unlikely to change in the next six years, and certainly a non-issue here in Indiana, where strong pro-life Republican Richard Mourdock lost the Senate race to strong pro-life Democrat Joe Donnelly.  The stink Mr. Mourdock and the biologically ignorant Mr. Aken† gave rise to may have cost their party other seats, too; I'll leave that for the pundigentsia to dope out.

     The other issues are also a mess either way and for blame, you have to go back to FDR and Ponzi.  Like John Maynard Kenynes, they're safely dead and probably sniggering.  No Congress or President can work it out, it still will go over a cliff and the only questions are how soon and how far it will fall.  (At worst, the U.S. will go the way the USSR did; I expect this will happen in my lifetime, probably in time to reduce my retirement savings to wallpaper.  I still don't know if I should work on paying off this house or try instead to buy acreage with a good well, water running downhill, and room for a good-sized truck garden, but I'm going for tangible assets instead of paper and so should you.  You can't eat a 401k.)

     Elections are over, we got what we got, and if there's any true colors to be shown while the leopard refuses to change his shorts, you'll see 'em.  You don't make much headway if you keep riding out night after night claiming "The Brutish are coming!" unless you wait for the light to show in the belfry of the Old North Church.

     No matter who won, the relentless march of the Feds towards a police state would continue unabated -- albeit one with happy-face stickers and some degree and manner of the trappings of the former rule of law.  I have never seen a year when the noose did not grow tighter -- usually in a direction most people either weren't looking or had convinced themselves was oooooo-tay.

     Maybe it's time to re-examine your priorities; I will be checking over mine.  And, Republican Party?  Its not about being "too moderate" or "too conservative" on any conventional axis, it's about the being hit and miss on basic, hardcore issues that directly affect the greatest number of potential voters.  That party has a lot of sorting-out to do and I have no hope it will undertake any of it before the next round -- and until they do, they will continue to lose elections.  (See also: Claire Wolfe.)

     I'm done with 'em.  I'm voting a straight LP ticket.  No more handouts to GOPpers (and the rare Dem) who look as if they might stink a little less bad than their opponent. Might as well lose while backing an ideologically consistent group with real answers; the elephant and the donkey refuse to give up their fairytales, no matter what it costs their parties -- or the country.
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* Which reminds me, if you are pro-life, do not stand there and tell me how you want government out -- totally, completely 100% O-U-T -- of me and my doctor's healthcare decisions, because you don't; you just have a different, shorter list of matters in which the .gov can interfere.  It's smaller but it's still a camel's nose, no matter how much you dress it up.
 
† I suppose it's unfair to single him out; most politicians are ignorant of everything except how to solicit a bribe without saying anything chargeable, accept it gracefully when it arrives, what fork to use and who to use it on, and when to say "ain't."