Patty's Pet F$@#*ing Peeve From Canvasing

I completed canvasing yesterday, leaving the remainder of the get-out-the-vote efforts to my fellow committed Dems in suburban Minnesota. Despite popular myth, Democrats are a powerfully motivated bunch when they have a group of candidates and a platform they can stomach promoting.

Hats off to you all: the college-age organizers who have been sleeping in unfurnished apartments in cities hundreds or thousands of miles from home being paid a stipend that pays for food only and no beer. Thank you to the thousands of Boomers who have seen the financial results of their generation's hard push towards individual freedoms come back and bite them only a few years before they are scheduled to retire. Or rather, thank you to those Boomers who have seen this happen and are now fighting hard to correct the problems for their own benefit, and perhaps even for the benefit of others.

Thank you to the racist old Swede who told me two days ago, "I don't like Blacks and for good reason, but I'm voting for Obama." I felt torn in hearing that statement, wrenched between pain at his boldly stated racism and impressed by his willingness to consider the ballot rationally despite his racism. Thank you to the working class, White guys in Minnesota who are abandoning the Republican Macho-Making-Machine-Mentality for measured reason and intelligent choice towards economic self-interest. And thank you to the millions of African American and Hispanic American voters who will be the King Makers in this election while White folks continue our cultural battle between xenophobic yesterday and an emotionally intelligent attitude of a shared world for today.

I'm sure I have more thank yous, but that's where I'll leave it. Now for my Pet F#$@!ing Peeves.

My biggest peeve for this election year is most defiantly the White "Independent" voters. My guess is never in history have we seen so many Independent voters. I'm sure there are those who are and have been Independent voters for many years and to those I have less criticism. But from my experience actually talking with these "Independent" voters, they seem to have few answers, many criticisms, a need to seem responsible as a citizen, and some unexpressed "thing" going on inside. My guess is that this "thing" is a palpable resistance to voting for a man with skin darker than theirs, a man married to a woman who is also, oh shit, African American, as well.

This self-labeling "Independent" seems to give people a sense that they are good, earnest, powerful Americans who can't be pulled by a major party, so fierce is their autonomy. In reality, many of these people seem more like the kids on the playground who have lots of toys, don't want to share, and who run away, tiny arms and fists clutching their stuff, when a grown up tells them to share. In Reality World, we need to work with the problems we face, which are big and scary and not going anywhere. This means intelligent reasoning, compromise and working together.

Now I'm also a fan of multi-party systems. Many democracies other than ours have many parties represented by their governments and this is often a very good thing. I would be in full support of all those so-called "Independents" working hard, and I mean as hard as the Democrat organizers have worked this year, towards getting broader support and representation to the Greens, the libertarians and new parties as well. Even the Alaskan secessionists have a place at the table in my opinion. But unfortunately, from what I've seen, this "independent" vote seems to be mostly disenfranchised Republicans not willing to take responsibility for the horror that is the administration they put into power, and who are DOING nothing to heal this country and this world.

I very much hope that the "Independent" voters jump on the Big Ship Reality with the rest of us in recognizing no person, neighborhood or nation goes it alone and that when mistakes are made we need to do what we can to make them right again. And if those who are calling their racism "independence," then I hope their twisted and fractured thinking leaves them so empty and exhausted they cannot manage to make it to the polls tomorrow.

I hope very much that Obama's likely victory tomorrow will bring in a new culture of responsibility to our country where citizens recognize the necessity of participation in democracy and commit themselves to it. For those who are actually "Independent," I hope very much they commit to doing the work necessary to bring forth new parties, strengthen older ones and deliver to our nation additional representation in our local, state and national governments beyond the narrow agendas of our two party system. Calling oneself an Independent so you don't have to commit to doing anything for either big party is just plain lazy.

A lot of energy has been raised that has renewed our democracy. Lets keep it going beyond tomorrow and remake ourselves into a 21st century democracy.