election musings

http://ronin-kakuhito.livejournal.com/278505.html
I got tuesday off work. That means that I can slog out to my polling place and vote that morning. I know I could have voted early or absentee, I could ride my bike or even call either of the campaigns for a ride (and tactically, I should call the McCain campaign, but really, no, that's the sort of shit the black hats do, not my side. Well, if I find the memebers of my side that do that sort of thing, I'm panning on meeting them in a dark ally some day, but I digress...) but call it a mediation on the system. I find that taking the time to walk some distance to the polls and then waiting in line to vote holds some value. (sadly, English lacks non-supernatural references for this whole category of event, but oh well, that's what I get for speaking a language with a basis in superstitious cultures. So all of them.) Essentially, one takes part in the spirit of the event by the saccrifice of some minimal time and effort. No utilitarian value, but a symbolic one, and you have to be pretty stubbornly blind to completely spurn the value of symbolisim both in the personal and public sphere.

Also, speaking of alleys, I have some folks I want to meet in one.
Riding in to work I see assorted campaign signs in people's yards. While I think that the blackhat candidate is a moral and political danger to the United Statea, I don't believe that his followers should be silenced. Especially when they are using their own space to unobtrusively post their message. Well, both his signs and the good guy's signs have occasionally been taken by people who would silence the supporters of one or the other candidate. Two I noticed in particular.
In one of the nicer neighborhoods on my ride to work, there is a lone McCain/Palin sign. This morning all that was out there was the metal stand the sign was supposed to be slipped over.
In another neighborhood, rather closer to home, an Obama/Biden sign is missing stand and all.
Even though I'm supporting Obama and even though that sign was an act trying to silence my own personal voice, I am more upset by the McCain sign. See the Obama sign was taken by McCain's supporters, a group who historically have worked to suppress the voices of their opposition through pretty vile tactics in a representitive government. I expect black hats to act like black hats and when they fail to do so, I am pleasantly suprised, but when they do act like black hats, I am not particularly bothered. I may take action to try to counter their actions, but they are black hats, and thus are expected to act like thugs.

On the other hand, when my own side does the same, I get pissed off. We are the fucking good guys ass holes. You are fucking dragging us down to the black hats' level by your actions. Please stop. I will eventually find you somewhere alone and far from help and remind you that decent people don't act like that. (I think the good guys should be turning some of the blackhats tactics and methods against them, but that doesn't mean amoral free for all.)