I Can't Wait

A few days ago I started a series of posts to Facebook about how excited I was about the upcoming election because it's extremely important (maybe THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION EVER '16) because of the stark policy differences between the two major parties. Somebody suggested I collect them all in one place, so here they are (in reverse order). Since you've probably already got the song "I Can't Wait" by Nu Shooz stuck in your head, I'll put the video at the end of this post. I bet you've forgotten how goddamn weird that video is.

I can’t wait until tomorrow to see if we ignore Israel’s war crimes because we need a place for Jesus to come back to for Armageddon or because criticizing Israel’s policies is somehow anti-Semitism.

I can’t wait until tomorrow to find out if right-wing militia groups are noble patriots who are above the law or dangerous radicals who are above the law.

I can’t wait until tomorrow to find out whether a living wage is morally indefensible or politically unworkable.

I can’t wait until tomorrow to find out if we send children back to war zones we helped create because they’re disease-ridden criminals or because they didn’t follow the rules.

I can't wait until Tuesday to find out whether we give corporations a tax holiday on repatriated earnings because we're pretending they earned the money outside the U.S. or because we're pretending they'll use it to create jobs.

I can't wait until Tuesday to find whether we’ll spy on Muslims using undercover surveillance or community outreach.

I can't wait until Tuesday to see if we get an administration that denies climate change or one that just mostly ignores it.

I can't wait until Tuesday to find out whether tax cuts for the rich are a policy initiative or a concession to win support on the other side of the aisle.

I can't wait until Tuesday to find out whether the Supreme Court vacancy gets filled with a business-friendly right-winger or a business-friendly centrist.

I can't wait until Tuesday night to find out whether the filibuster is obstruction or a pragmatic use of Congressional rules.

I can't wait until Tuesday to find out whether criticizing the President is Constitutionally protected speech or an act of treason.

I can't wait until Tuesday night to find out whether massive government surveillance remains a necessary precaution or goes back to being a violation of Constitutional rights like it was 8 years ago.

I can't wait until Tuesday night to find out whether we keep Gitmo open for national security or because closing it would be kind of a hassle.

I can't wait until Tuesday to find out whether we don't prosecute Wall Street criminals because they didn't do anything wrong or because it could hurt the economy.

I can't wait until Tuesday night to find out whether key offices in the new administration are filled exclusively by wealthy white men or by a diverse collection of people who are in complete ideological agreement with wealthy white men.

I can't wait until Tuesday night to find out whether privatization and deregulation are to end government overreach or to encourage innovation.

I can't wait until Tuesday night to find out whether the next round of cuts to education and social services are a shared sacrifice or class warfare.

I can't wait until Tuesday night to find out whether next year's war in Syria is military profiteering or the only reasonable response to humanitarian crisis.

My Vote Counts Part 6: States Where It Might

I kind of dropped the ball on this series because life, so since the election is just a couple of days away, I'm going to skip the details on the last 20 or so states. If you want to check the historical trends for your state, 270towin.com provides it in an easy-to-understand format. Fivethirtyeight.com is a god place to go for poll numbers and projections.

Light Red & Light Blue States

These states usually go to one party or the other, but only by a margin of 5-10%, so there's an outside chance of them flipping. Since Gary Johnson is polling much higher than Jill Stein, the light red states are the most likely to flip, but there are no doubt some Bernie supporters whose knowledge of Johnson ends at "he smokes weed," so there's at least some chance of him spoiling a light blue state for Clinton.

Light Red States: Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, Arizona, North Carolina
Light Blue States: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon

Real Swing States 

West Virginia, New Hampshire New Mexico, and Ohio are evenly split over the last 10 elections, with each party winning the state 5 times. 

Iowa and Michigan have gone to the Democrats in 6 of the past 10 elections. 

Nevada and Florida have gone to the Republicans in 6 of the last 10 elections. 

Missouri, Virginia, and Colorado have gone to the GOP in 7 or more of the past 10 elections, but the margin of victory is usually small enough that it would take a much smaller shift in voter patterns for the Democrats to win than most other states would require. 

If you live in a state that has a real chance of flipping and honestly believe that one of the two major parties is the lesser evil, by all means vote for the lesser evil. If you live in one of the states that's almost guaranteed to go to one party or the other, voting for the minority party is wasting your vote in my opinion, but it's your vote so do what you want with it. If you think there's a lesser evil but it's still more evil than you want to vote for, or if you'd prefer your vote to go toward helping a third party meet the finance threshold, you might consider looking into something like www.votepact.org, where you and someone who's reluctantly voting for the other lesser evil each agree to not reluctantly vote for the lesser evil. Since both evils "lose" one of the votes they think they're entitled to, your refusal to vote for the lesser evil doesn't help the greater evil.