And Here, We, Go

Tomorrow, we'll finally cast our ballots and put this slog of an election behind us once and for all.  There does seem to be a general sense of relief going around at the prospect, which, isn't all that surprising.  The dampening effect that voting means either Clinton or Trump will be the next President hasn't really sunk in yet, but, at this point, people can only deal with crushingly hopeless situations one at a time, getting a jump start on the next awful situation looming over the horizon just shows a lack of basic survival skills

As of now, things are too close to call.  I imagine Hillary desperately searching for the "why" of it all on the eve of the election: How could decades worth of work ingratiating herself into the upper echelons of politics and business leave her in a dead heat with a used car salesman lucky enough to pop out to a rich family?  How could it all really come down to this?  It's telling that Hillary will never really be able to comprehend that the single biggest threat to her endgame is all the things she did to get to this point in the first place.  I've said it before, but, still, watching Hillary see her life's ambition slip away in front of her because she was bogged down by the weight of the backroom bullshit she's pulled over the years would be a great thing to see.  Irony always stings deeper when it plays out on the biggest stage possible.  In a better world, she would get all that she has coming to her and we'd all be the better for it.

Unfortunately, we happen to live in this one.  And Hillary getting her comeuppance means being saddled with what is quite possibly the stupidest person to ever run for President.  Not that I think Trump is actually going to be that involved in his Presidency, no, I expect much of the day-to-day decisions are going to fall to Mike Pence.  Pence, at least, actually has a coherent and consistent political and philosophical outlook he operates by; the only downside is that outlook would put him on pretty friendly ground with the Taliban if they spoke English.  For the Trump supporters inclined to find themselves in a tizzy, remember, Trump stamping his name on something while other people do all the actual work that he takes credit for is literally how he makes his money.

Ultimately, this election is like one of those choose your own adventure stories where you made all the wrong decisions and now have to decide what your horrible ending will be.  For my money, picking the woman who will continue to sell out the average citizen to her donors is the better pick.  The only reasons why are that Clinton's awfulness is actually quantifiable, we know what to expect and can plan accordingly to survive it or beat it.  The other good thing about Clinton is that she is so dependent on being seen as an actual, compassionate person that she is a slave to the political winds; if popular sentiment can generate enough blowback against her, she won't do anything that she sees as a political risk to jeopardize her position.  So Hillary can at least be countered or out-maneuvered because she is, at heart, a political animal, and she plays the game to such a rigid extent that it's pretty easy to see her coming.

It is true that electing Hillary is going to lead to "more of the same" and that continuity doesn't mean anything good for, well, pretty much anyone who isn't already stupidly rich. But electing Trump is basically calling a hurricane down on a rickety old building and hoping there will be something left worth salvaging afterwards.  As a general rule, megalomaniacal, impetuous children and religious fanatics aren't really the kind of people who come along in a dire moment of need and turn their countries back towards prosperity; rather, they're usually the ones who bring down whatever ruin they claimed they could save the country from in the first place.  

To close, I'd like to leave you with a little something to remember just in case you start feeling that the only way for us to go from here is up: