So...How Are We Feeling Tonight, America?

This is an "as of around 5PM Sunday before election day" map showing how things might go on Tuesday according to 538.

Not particularly bright and sunny for either candidate.


One thing we know for sure? This map will change.


Another thing we know for sure? This country has been changed, and we probably won't have another "civil" election for at least a generation.  I'll probably be long dead before one side stops being a bunch of shit-birds.


A friend of mine, one of the rare friends with whom I don't mind talking politics, asked me for a prediction. "Who's gonna win this thing?"


As we talked, it occurred to us both that we've all lost. I don't say that to sound like one of those, "both candidates are bad" people. I don't believe both candidates are bad. I believe that a Clinton presidency would be like the Obama presidency: Not nearly as exciting as their opponents make them out to be. Kind of boring, in fact. Boring like...people going to work. Government office style boring.


I'm a big fan of boring when it comes to the presidency of this country. Bring on the boring. Not much fun for the comedy writers, of course, but far better for the rest of us.


Even if it turns out we have 8 years of "boring," we're still not going to have a great 8 years. The shit-birds will still be shit-birds, emboldened by the escalation of ridiculousness that has proceeded these final hours.


They'll get their shit all over everything.


We're all covered in it already.


On Tuesday, I'll be lifting a glass. It might be in disgust. It won't likely be in celebration. Even a win for the person who *should* win just means more whining from the ones who didn't. They'll get louder and louder and we'll all have to put up with their pouting and stamping of feet. No one will enjoy this. No one.


The PR angle of politics used to be fun for me. I was pretty good at predicting an outcome based on how people were talking, what words they were using, and how people reacted. We're not much fun to look at these days. Oh, I still have my preference, and I still think one side is better than the other, but the other side is not so predictable any more--they keep moving the goalpost to new areas of awful.


So...how are we feeling tonight? Ready for it to be over, but sick with the knowledge that it won't be, for years.