I see in this morning’s headlines that Attorney General John Ashcroft has resigned. Two thoughts occurred to me as I was reading about this development. First, if Mr. Bush is really as interested in “healing the country” as he said he was in his acceptance speech, he ought to consider nominating a Democrat for this position. I happen to know of a certain former trial lawyer and vice presidential candidate who isn’t doing much at the moment. And second, maybe now we can behave like grown-ups and uncover Lady Justice’s breasts…

As President Bush forges ahead with his second-term agenda, I hope someone will show him this pie-chart:

Hardly a sweeping mandate…

So I stopped at the liquor store last night to pick up a bottle of Jameson. Not to be too melodramatic about it, but after the day I’d had, I needed — hell, I deserved! — a good stiff drink. The grog shop was unusually busy for a Wednesday night in Sandy, Utah, and I found myself wondering if the people in line around me were also disgruntled Democrats in need of a belt. There was no way to tell, of course. The guy in front of me looked like he’d just turned legal, and from the way he gingerly placed a single Smirnoff Ice on the counter in front of the cashier, I gathered he was experimenting with his new-found right to get potted. The woman behind me, meanwhile, was loaded down with a half-dozen bottles of wine and looked to be in a hurry. I guessed she had a dinner party to get back to. And right after I made that guess I started thinking that maybe everything in the universe doesn’t really revolve around politics after all. After all, the election of George W. Bush didn’t stop the sun from rising, the college kid from getting his first drunk on, or the wine lady from cooking a meal for her friends. Life continues. And realizing that little fact left me feeling much better about what happened on Tuesday.

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So it’s to be four more years, is it? I can’t say I’m surprised. Disappointed, dejected, disgusted, and very worried about what comes next, but not surprised. The fact is, I’ve been steeling myself for the big let-down for weeks now. I started planning what I would say about it here on Simple Tricks, if it became necessary to say anything at all, back around the middle of October. (Obviously, I hoped it wouldn’t be necessary.) Except now it has become necessary to say something, and I find that most of what I had imagined myself saying no longer applies to how I’m actually feeling.

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I’ll be back later with my reaction to the election results, but for now I thought I’d share the best bit of political writing I’ve read this morning, a remarkably cogent analysis of the Ohio situation using an old ’80s sitcom to put it all into perspective. From Jaime J. Weinman’s blog “Something Old, Nothing New”, I give you The Family Ties Explanation:

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Well, it’s a cold day here in Utah underneath a high crystal sky — quite pretty actually — and the temperatures aren’t affecting the voting one bit. My own polling place was crowded like I’ve never seen it before, and everyone was talking about the turn-out. There was even an exit poller there from a media research group, the first time I’ve ever encountered such a thing in my sleepy little suburban precinct. The air felt charged with electricity, like it does before a concert or a long-anticipated film. People knew they were making history today.

One quick anecdote to relate: I overheard the woman in line behind me say that her husband had cut short a business trip and was driving in from Oregon today so he could cast his ballot.

It’s that important.

Take time off work, go during your lunch, go after work. But go.

In a little under fourteen hours, the process begins… the truly revolutionary concept that emerged from the minds of those Virginia planters back in 1776, the idea that the People could make up their own damn minds about who was going to call the shots.

I can’t begin to stress how absolutely vital it is for every registered voter who may be reading this blog to do their duty tomorrow morning (or this evening, if you live in one of the handful of states that allows early voting). You may think that your vote won’t carry much practical weight because of the screwiness of the electoral college. I know mine won’t. But that’s beside the point. There are people in the world who would die for the privelege that many Americans ignore because they think their vote won’t make any difference, or because they’re cynical about the candidates (there is a difference between Bush and Kerry, dammit!), or because it’s cold outside or any of a raft of other silly reasons. There are people who are dying right now to try and obtain this privelege as well as those who are dying because not enough of us bother to exercise the privelege. So, no matter which candidate you support, make sure you get out of the house and make your position heard. It only takes a few minutes.

If you’re not sure where you need to go to vote, consult mypollingsite.com for a quick and easy reminder. You might also try mypollingplace.com, but I understand that site has been slammed with traffic today and is intermittently off-line.

Finally, if you’re a Utah voter and you haven’t yet reviewed the Voter Information pamphlet that came in the newspaper a few weeks ago, please make sure you give it a look. There are more things to vote on than the positions of president or governor, including some very important legislation.

If you’re a religious sort, pray for a fast and definitive conclusion to tomorrow’s festivities. And if you’re not so sure about this God fellow, well, just hope for the best…