Wake me when it's November

So sorry about my complete lack of attention to this blog. I can only defend myself by saying that I have worked myself into a complete state of paralysis. I am now at the point where even putting my thoughts into a coherent blog post is too overwhelming a task. I just cannot seem to shake a very intense feeling of foreboding about the upcoming presidential election. And with each day this terrible sense of doom seems to be growing. I wake up each morning so sick to my stomach that I debate whether or not to read the morning paper or even turn on my computer.

I am hyper-aware of how dirty the GOP can get when it is backed into a corner and I fear that any confidence we may be feeling at this point in the game is very foolish. Each day I encounter some kind of reminder that this thing is not a done deal for Democrats. And what is most sobering to me is that dirty slimy campaign ads work. I am gobsmacked daily with reminders of just how many people so willingly buy into it all.

Maybe living in an area that is so overwhelmingly conservative is part of the problem. I just cannot escape the madness. On a daily basis I run into people, even people I admire and respect, who blow me away with statements (about Obama) like: “I just don’t trust him.” Or “You know he’s a Muslim.” Or “Well McCain has the experience to handle the terrorism and wars we are in – you know he’s a war hero – don’t you?”

But maybe worse than anything else for me is the complete selfishness that I see going into so many people’s decision-making process: “I’m a small business owner and Obama is going to tax me to death.” Or “I don’t see anything wrong with our health care system, I am very happy with my insurance and care.” Or “I don’t want to pay higher taxes and Obama will raise my taxes.” And I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that this is an area of very well-to-do people who go to gyms that have every TV turned on to CNBC and start sentences with “I” and end them with “me”.

I even dread getting together with friends anymore. I just don’t want to find out that yet another person I know and admire is approaching this election as an uninformed, selfish, Fox-news sound-bite voter. And then to top things off, when I inform them that I will be voting for Barack Obama for president, I end up a recipient of every viral email containing the latest horror the GOP has dreamed up about Obama.

So to sum up, I am in a stupefying funk that shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. I am scared to death that ignorance and selfishness is going to give us 4 more years of nightmarish Republican rule. And I am going into hermit mode. Posting may be very light for quite some time.