Just 3 days until all the crying and finger-pointing begins

I have been on this planet for over 40 years. I have been a voter for over 20. I don't recall any midterm elections being so much in the news as 2022. It is, as expected, quite toxic and the candidates that I bothered to look at are focusing on the very specific shortcomings of their opponents and only offering a very vague idea about what they are going to do. I hate this part of politics because I don't care which party you affiliate with, almost all politicians blow a lot of hot air on the way to their office and once they get there they proceed to do exactly the same thing as anyone else.

src

Maybe it is just because I am politically jaded and don't allow politics to be a big part of my life but I don't recall the name of ANYONE who was running in a mid-term election at any point in my life let alone have it completely dominate the news the way that it is now. We are completely inundated with advertisements as well which I noticed the other day when I was watching a bit of the World Series. Virtually every commercial break was filled with political ads that were paid for by this PAC or that and most of them were mud-slinging rather than ever talking about a particular candidate that someone should vote for.

They are calling for a "red wave" in a few days but no matter who wins I think we are going to be in for the usual whining and refusal to concede and this will be followed up by recounts, court cases, and accusations of cheating. I can all but guarantee that anyone that loses will not take it sitting down.

I think we got to this point because a lot of people question the legitimacy of our elections across the board. I had my doubts many years ago when Ron Paul had HUGE support in our small city... signs for him were everywhere and you rarely even saw a sign for anyone else but when the next day results came in he managed to get less than 5% of the overall primary vote. I called bullshit from that day forward and while I do still vote I don't believe that the elections are fair and the conspiracy theory guy in me is kind of starting to believe that the entire voting process is just a song and dance to keep the peasants in line believing that their voice actually matters.

I'll just leave that notion on the back burner for now though. Let's just assume that the various people involved actually do count our votes for now. In the meantime I think that this election will be one of the most closely-watched of all time and the accusations, the hidden camera footage, and the jackasses who film everything on their phones even when they aren't supposed to are going to be out in droves.

Then will come the FB bragging about "I voted!" will start happening as if those people are supposed to get some sort of social credit points for doing something totally normal.

src

Even though I rarely participate in social media I will admit that I fully plan to look in so I can see the usual jokers that I know that feel as though they need to lecture the rest of us who are too stupid to live our own lives without their guidance. The funny thing about these particular people is that they are some of the most unhappy people that I know.

I don't know who is going to win but I do know that no matter what happens, things are not going to change. If the R's take both the House and the Senate there is going to be a bunch of bragging and being assholes and then the D's are going to block everything possible for the next two years where the cycle will repeat itself. Politics is completely broken in USA and that isn't going to change just because the country goes red.