And life goes on

My fellow Americans, we’ve entered into the final stretch of this 2008 Presidential Election. By this time next week, barring any hanging chads, we should know who will be serving as the next president of the United States.

And therefore, by this time next week, half of the country is going to be unhappy. Well, roughly half, depending on how accurate these latest polls are. So, in advance, I’d like to send a message to all those Americans who are supporting the guy who will not win (whomever that may be): Get over it.

That’s right, chill out. It’s over. We can move on. Someone had to lose, and it just happened to be you.

Are you really surprised your guy lost? I mean, someone had to. Only one candidate can be elected. So, either the inexperienced charmer with innovative ideas and a vanilla running mate would lose, or the experienced guy with the temper and the ridiculous running mate would lose. When it’s all said and done, I imagine no one is going to be able to act surprised at the outcome of this election.

The outcome of the election itself really isn’t going to matter for a while. Sure, the legacy a president leaves behind will ultimately affect our children and grandchildren. But the majority of American voters know better than to believe campaign promises will be delivered on at all, much less in any sort of timely fashion. It will be months, or more likely years, until any real changes can be felt by the populous.

So what do we do now? Our news stations will be back to broadcasting the weather, bank robberies and three-eyed kittens. Saturday Night Live will go back to being unfunny. Water cooler conversations can go back to being about Linda-from-accounting’s horrible haircut, instead of about how much money Sarah Palin spent at Neiman Marcus and what segment of the heartland Obama has most recently offended by virtue of his middle name.

So, I’ve got an idea: How’s about we get back to our lives now, huh? Instead of obsessively refreshing CNN’s homepage wondering what the government is going to do to save us from economic ruin, we could get out and rake the leaves. Instead of convincing my girlfriends to research before they vote, I can get back to convincing them to try this new brand of cookies I’ve discovered. Instead of family dinners disintegrating into brawls over political views, we can get back to arguing about the consistency of Mom’s meatloaf. You know, the good old days.

It’s what we do now that will matter, America. We can encourage our government to keep its promises. We can care for one another through our churches and our charities. We can love our children, and raise them to be honest, upstanding members of society. Because ultimately it is us, not the as-yet-unnamed president, who determines the course of our country.