So tomorrow is the Big Day, Election 2004, and I'm terrified for any number of reasons. Bush and Kerry are still inexplicably pretty close in the polls, and I just don't get it. Obviously, the election is the hot topic right now, and here's a couple of bits I found online that say things better than I can.

From author Caitlin Kiernan's journal:

"This presidential thing is looking grim. Bush is leading in the polls again. What, exactly, does it take for the people of America to notice that they're being vigourously ass-fucked by a bunch of hateful old men with a hard-on for nothing but money and military expansionism? Let's see...it takes more than getting us all stuck in an unjust, unwinnable war. It takes more than learning that the hateful old men lied to get us to let them go to war. It takes more than a disregard for education, fair taxes, and the poor. It takes more than seeing that an administration is willing to wipe its ass with the Bill of Rights. It takes more than an impending draft, deemed necessary to keep the aforementioned unjust, unwinnable war stocked with cannon fodder. Maybe it takes just a little bit more apocalypse and ass-fuckery than we've seen so far.

"Maybe I'm just impatient.

"And I'm growing cynical, again.

"This is it, folks. Like it or not, we're the most powerful nation on earth. Right or wrong, our will shall most likely determine the fate of this particular civilization and, perhaps, the fate of the planet, as well. You take a thing just so goddamn far, and maybe you don't get more than fourteen or fifteen second chances."

And Mark Morford's column was also pretty inspiring, but I'm not going to quote it here.

For me, this is the biggest concern that I have, beyond specific issues and problems with the Bush administration (of which there are many): If America reelects George W. Bush tomorrow, in the face of everything that he's done, all the lies, all the corruption, all the bad decisions and deaths, it's like America is coming out and admitting that we, as a people, embrace willful ignorance. We approve of bullying, of thuggery, of lies and corruption, and that above all, might makes right. We don't care about things like reason, or compassion, or truth or honesty, or personal rights or any of the things that we pretend to stand for, and now we're finally coming out and admitting that. And that's the message that reelecting George Bush sends, and I'm not at all comfortable with the knowledge that a large number of Americans may be okay with that. It's a continuum, ranging from declaring an unjustified war on another country in the face of international disapproval just because we can, all the way down to some jerk in an SUV making a left turn from the right-hand lane just because he's got the bigger car, but it's all of a piece. And that's not the America I believe in.

Fortunately, I think most other people don't believe in that America either. The trick is getting them out and voting. So I'm still volunteering to get the vote out. I'm spending all day tomorrow (polls are open for 12 hours here) knocking on doors and trying to get people in my neighborhood to the polls. And I'm so intimidated by the enormity of that task, I get panicky just thinking about it. (Panicky? I am freaked right the fuck out, make no mistake.) But it's either do this, or make the choice not to. And quite honestly, while I'm running around trying to drag people to the polls, I'm know I'm going to be feeling like I'm not reaching enough people. And if--God forbid--things don't work out tomorrow, I'm still going to feel awful, no matter how much of my all I give.

So, if I'm going to do this, than at least everyone reading this can get out and vote. Vote for Kerry, vote for Bush, whatever (but mostly, vote for Kerry, obviously), but let's make sure that America makes this decision, not just some of it.