I really wish I had the ability to be apathetic about the US Presidential Elections. Not being a US Citizen, I shouldn’t be as concerned about the results as I have been but this year, I’d actually began to form a few half-baked, somewhat informed opinions (one can only imagine how uniformed the average American voter is *sigh*). Knowing the little that I know, I find myself incredibly disappointed with this election, more disappointed than I’ve ever been in anything related to politics. So I guess I’m writing here to let some of it out, even though I really am tired of all the status updates, notes and blog posts on politics. Here’s my small little contribution to the noise I wish I couldn’t care less about.

Yesterday, I worked for 2 hours on a post, predicting Obama’s victory, but lost all that I’d written when my browser crashed because it couldn’t handle the presidential debates playing on YouTube along with all the other tabs I had open. Ultimately, watching the debate was a waste of my time. All it was was a space where the candidates could fight for popularity with the public, and though it was the supposed intention, I didn’t learn much about what would ACTUALLY happen if either became president. I only got to observe the angles in which each tried to appeal to the public. So who really knows what will happen now. Now you guys get all the “Change” you’ve been waiting for. You’ll need it, especially when you soon find out you’ll need to pay more taxes.

I am sure those of my friends who are celebrating Obama’s victory won’t mind me admitting now, that for some reason, whenever I learn that someone is an Obama supporter, they lose a few points in my book. At least in the arena of making critical, unbiased, rational decisions, which I myself am not very good at anyway, so who am I to judge, right? I know I am easily influenced by the opinions of those around me, and I do have to honestly ask myself if I would have found myself on the side of supporting Obama given a different set of friends or, most of all if Christopher had a different take on politics.

In any case, I have noticed that the people whose opinions I respect the most are not Obama supporters. They usually aren’t McCain supporters either. Usually those are the people that see that there are no really good options when it comes to electing a president. Ultimately, though, it’s not the cynics that move the country, it’s those that believe in causes. Perhaps I am less impressed with Obama because all the information I have been fed have come from the wrong (or should I say the right?) side of the spectrum. Being LDS and surrounded by conservatives doesn’t really help, I suppose. Still, I would really like to listen to someone clearly explain to me why Obama will do a great job with in his new post and be convinced. It still has yet to happen. All I hear is “But he will CHANGE things!” But will it be for the better? If so how? And why will he do it better than anyone else? What has he done to prove that he will?

I expressed to Christopher once that I hoped Obama would win and have enough time to screw up/disappoint so that people will regret voting for him and I can laugh and say “I told you so”. But that is not the right thing to hope for. I hope to be proven wrong, and that he will grown into these big shoes in the way that the country needs him too.

Ultimately, I am happy that democracy exists so that the people can elect their leaders. I am glad that the majority of America is rejoicing at this moment. But I am also sorely disheartened by the painful reminder that all presidential elections are popularity contests and that ultimately we don’t really understand what is best for us.

Still, the power of “fixing” the country isn’t in the hands of the president alone. Maybe Obama is what the people need for a president: a popular public figure who can keep them optimistic about the future of their country who is popular or at least well known across the borders. To the average Chinese person, Mc-who(?) was the person running against Obama.

In any case, the people have their president, and let’s hope things only get better, and not worse in the promised land.