Hoping

'Twas the night before voting and all through my house we're anticipating a victory for Barack Obama and the American people tomorrow --yes, I've actually allowed myself to be optimistic--with an end to the worst presidency in the history of this country. And a repudiation of the crack-brained ideas foisted upon us by the so-called Great Communicator Ronald Reagan. A great communicator of nonsense to the masses of ignorant Americans who actually believed that it was morning in America, that market forces were indeed divine, that government was the problem, that regulation of corporations was the epitome of foolishness. Amazingly, we still have people who believe such nonsense.

These are the same people, millions of 'em, who have bought into the McCain-Palin bile-drenched and venomous campaign lies. McCain, who knew he stood not a chance winning by running either on the issues or his record, has waged a campaign of vituperation and slander from the beginning. You're familiar with all the false charges: Obama is a socialist, that he consorts with terrorists, that he wants to teach explicit sex to kindergartners, that he is a Muslim, and yada, yada.

Can you believe that anyone could believe this crap? It's difficult to believe, but millions do. Reagan's snake oil about everything being fine simply would not play, not in this wreck of a country that the vile little fraud in the White House has left us. No, McCain and Palin needed stronger stuff. So what they've done is traffic constantly in fear. And they've embodied that fear in the person of Barack Obama. Not surprisingly, this tactic works on lots of people. (Somebody a lot less kind than I observed that the McCain campaign was "seemingly aimed at voters who would have trouble qualifying for the Special Olympics.") They have succeeded in activating the lizard brains out there to such an extent that people wearing Obama t-shirts are physically endangered simply by being in the sight of McCain supporters . I think this is just a symptom of how deluded people are. It's ugly, and it's no surprise. If you're going to sit on the fear button and make it ring non-stop, what exactly do you expect? You're going to get a mindless mob. People are going to go out of their heads and revert to the basic American archtype: a mindless purveyor of violence. I'm certain John McCain doesn't intend this, but he's been pretty meek about condemning it. And Sarah Palin has done nothing to discourage it from what I can see.

For goodness sake, let's vote the better angels of our nature tomorrow.