With only 2 days left until November 4th, I feel less and less inclined to vote. I should have made myself go to the early voting places last week because getting out on Tuesday is going to be a struggle for me, I’m pretty sure.

I’m also less inclined to want to vote for either of the two main candidates for the presidential election. I think it’s mostly because I’m annoyed with both of the candidates for being so…. petty…. lately with each other. I’m tired of hearing them take each other’s statements out of context and twist them to make their point (which coincidentally they keep making.. over and over.. the same exact point, ad nauseam). I think John McCain sounds like a 7th grader when he calls Barack Obama “Redistributer-in-Chief.” I mean seriously… a man old enough to my grandfather is calling people names like he’s on the playground. And I think Barack Obama has misrepresented McCain’s health care plans so many times, I’m beginning to think he’s not as intelligent as folks seem to think.

One of the hardest things for me to listen to during this election season has been some people (I suppose they are “conservatives”) pushing the idea that they “work hard” for their money and don’t think it should be “taken away.” The thing I hate about this whole concept is that it implies that working “harder” would always result in more income. Sadly, that’s just not how our country works (or any other country, from what I can tell). The people that work the HARDEST are often the ones that end up with the smallest paycheck at the end of the week. Ever tried picking strawberries for 12 hours a day? Or ever spent your whole day cleaning bathrooms and scrubbing floors? Perhaps I’m biased, but to me…that is hard work.

I’m not saying that it’s not draining or stressful or challenging to do things like run companies, or manage finances, or perform surgery, or represent legal clients, but I don’t think that white collar workers really have any claim to the arena of “hard work.”

Oh.. and don’t get me started on the complaints that are logged against low-income families that have many children. As if the “privilege” of having children should be confined to the wealthy. When someone can’t afford all the other luxuries of life… vacations, college educations, new cars, eating out, etc… how can we also suggest that they shouldn’t enjoy the joy of raising children and having a family?

All this to say… I don’t like the idea of voting for men (or women) who are manipulative which leaves me with few (okay…no) real choices this Tuesday. Or maybe I’m just feeling pessimistic, and dreading the craziness that I believe with ensue regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election. I so vividly remember watching students leave our election party 4 years ago sobbing - headed to their rooms in disbelief that our country had actually re-elected George Bush.

And… in other (and completely unrelated) news: Today I bought a leaf blower.