I think that if McCain-Palin is elected, or if Obama-Biden is elected, the following statement applies: Americans get the government that reflects their views the most.

If the majority of electoral votes (assuming no repeat of Fla 2000 or Ohio 2004) are for McCain-Palin, then this proves how shallow that majority of voters think. The sad thing is that even if Obama wins, the percent of voters who dont think much will still be just under 50%.

Another factor is that the President can only do so much. Even if Obama is elected, he still can only do so much without Congress. And, if Congress has a majority of the opposition in either house, then compromise will be the order of the day, or (more likely) each side will spend most of its time trying to make the other side look bad for the next election cycle, instead of serving the electorate. But if Obama wins and both houses of Congress are majority Democrats, remember how little got done during the first two years of Bill Clinton's admin. IE, Dems tend to fight amongst themselves instead of focusing on,....serving their electorate. Sigh. But, maybe this time "will be different". Well, that'd be nice, but dont count on it.

The real need is to get people to think critically (again, if they ever did in this country) and to think beyond themselves. Trouble is that the mainstream culture is so short-term and consumer oriented instead of thinking ahead and thinking about what's really important - which is NOT consuming and living isolated lives without connecting with the people around you.

So, what to do? Expect things'll get worse if McCain wins and that things will not get much better if Obama wins. Then, get on with trying to affect change more locally cuz that's where EVERYone in this country spends almost all of their time anyway - ie, locally. Each of us has a LOT more influence on local leaders than on Federal leaders.

End-of-rant