Post-election Observations

This has been one weird week. I'm still overjoyed by the news of Obama's victory, but I'm being met in many circles with so much negativity and downright vitriol from right wingers around me. It seems Newton's Third law applies to politics as well as it does to physics: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

I live in Oklahoma, one of the only truly red states in the nation. McCain carried our state, and by a wide margin. Hell, we may have been the only state that went red in every frickin' county! And being a devout Democrat in a state like this is like walking into high school gym class in a tutu... You're just asking for trouble.

And I hate that I let this shit bother me for a second. People that I know that are getting into this with me is one thing. Most of them know they'll get a rise out of me, and I don't hold a grudge if they drive me to that. But now, I'm having total strangers do this shit. While I admire the strength of their convictions, and respect their right to express it, it just unnerves me the bullshit they bought into. For instance:

1) Don't you think that if there was the slightest shred of proof that Barack Obama was NOT born in this country that someone would've been able to prove it by now, not just because he got elected, but maybe during the 21 months since he announced his candidacy? When arguing this point with this one guy, I brought up that I could say McCain's having been born on a military base in Panama is just as questionable, but I don't stress this subject because I lack the evidence to prove a negative. Likewise, I couldn't prove the guy I was arguing with was not an asshole.

2) I find it particularly amazing how people can accuse Obama of secretly being a Muslim and mention Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the same sentence. Or, when someone called him an elitist then bestowed the virtues of John McCain, a man who dumped his disabled wife for a sugar momma and currently owns 7-12 houses?

3) Many of the points that get brought up just boggle my mind. They constantly bitch about Obama's stance on health care, taxes, Iraq, Osama bin Laden, etc. without actually knowing what those clearly stated stances actually are! It's as if they put their televisions on mute whenever Obama spoke or put on headphones when someone like me tries to inform them of the reality of the situation.

4) Tonight, I got this message on Myspace from someone I do not know:

I'm a right wing conservative republican who "clings to my guns and religion". I'm 24 and for some reason i've hit a wall in life and I don't feel as though i'm being challenged enough, you seem to be my exact opposite...want to be friends?

Are you fucking kidding me? Was the Democrats' victories last week so devastating that right-wingers are turning into Tyler Durden from Fight Club? You want me to hit you as hard as I can?

And I don't say this with any desire to fight anyone over these points, but have things gotten that boring at the eight-year Sean Hannity/Rush Limbaugh/William Kristol circle jerk that they feel the need to seek us out to gratify their conversational bloodlust? I would ask them if this was the best idea they had after two million years of evolution, but that would probably open a different can of worms altogether.

All of this raises some really big questions, in my opinion. Like, is our nation ready for a President that can formulate a sentence without a teleprompter? Are we ready for someone that will actually listen to the will of the people and uphold the laws of our land instead of shooting first and later convincing us it was the right idea?

And I'm sure by writing this I just opened up a whole new palette load of abuse from the very people I'm sick of hearing this shit from, but I had to get this off my chest. My one wish for people to work together on swallowing this shit sandwich our current president has served us, so that we can finally move on to the dessert course. I'm not saying we have to agree on everything, but we don't have to constantly fight about it, either.

That being said, the next person who asks me if I'd like more of the Obama Kool-Aid is getting a flag pin in the jugular vein.

One final, albeit scary, thought. Last weekend was the big Gun and Knife show here in Tulsa, and according to news reports, the sales were through the roof! Most of the people at this show were snatching up guns left and right in preparation for a possible ban on such weapons by the Obama Administration. However, some of that crowd I saw coming out of the QuikTrip Center had a weird determination in their eyes that looked as if they were planning something that might involve a manifesto of some sort. To any of those people, please, calm down. Count to ten.

However, I prefer to think any actions done by these people will be done in a defensive manner rather than offensive... Fingers crossed. If I'm right on this, I'm perfectly fine with what they're doing. They can go spend the next four years living off the grid, in the woods, drinking their own urine and watching Red Dawn on a perpetual loop. Fine by me. The rest of us will be in the real world advancing our society.

And to those of us doing the advancing: If you hear anyone on the mountain yelling, "WOLVERINES!!!!", we should strongly consider running like hell.