Celebrating democracy: Polls are open

Given how often I've ranted in this space about the assaults on intelligence/freedom/democracy/decency/morality rained upon the United States and the world by the current administration in Washington, DC, it would be remiss of me not to mention that the polls are open, right now, in an election that could flip the majority in either or both houses of Congress. I'm grateful for the election, not because I have any real sense of its likely outcome -- I live too far away for that, and don't much trust polls -- but because it gives the American people another formal opportunity to make its preferences clear. Like the outcome or not, it is an anti-spin reality check. There's another thing I'd like to take this election-day opportunity to make clear. I am not a partisan Democrat. (I can just hear my Rush Limbaugh-listening father scoffing. But he claims never to read my blog for fear of being offended by its political sentiment, so...) As often as I have railed at the arrogance and evils of Bush Jr's Republican administration, I believe a review of this blog's content would reveal that comensurate fealty to Democrats is missing. The reason is simple. I am against the Bush administration and its rubber-stamp Republican congress and much of what the present incarnation of the Republican party has fashioned itself to be, but that does not make me a partisan Democratic party cheerleader. In the current polarized US political environment, you are either one thing or you are the other. Nuance, itself, is seen as liberal. (That last word should be, by current convention, spat more than spoken.) Yet, what I am for, in the current election, is not the Democratic party, but for powerful opposition. I am supporting the viability of an opposition to arrogant government, and an opposition to the Bush administration's political and policy agenda that stands against what I believe to be the better angels of America's nature. I am for a great, free nation. To get it, I am for divided government. Indeed, I am generally for divided government. Power corrupts, and the absolute power that comes from controlling the House, the Senate, the Executive and the Judiciary, corrupts absolutely. So, I do hope the Democrats win, today. But not because they're Democrats. I hope they win because we need a balancing power. Because the arrogance of any party un-checked damages the country. And because I want to knee-cap George W Bush. Politically, I mean. Not because he's a Republican, but because he's the Worst. President. Ever. Because his Presidency, unchecked, has been an embarrassment to a great nation. ..