As usual, the most insightful political commentary of this past election season (aside from Jon Stewart's appearance on Crossfire) was provided by South Park's season premiere - check it out if you haven't already.

It's been two weeks since the end of the US elections, and I for one could not be happier, both in terms of the result and because it's finally fucking over! I have spent the bulk of the last year in the USA and I gotta tell you, there were times when I was so sick of the process I just wanted to cry.

It absolutely amazes me the time, effort, and energy spent not only by the politicians and their parties, but all of America in their entire political process. It's an absolute shame that they devote most of their time talking and pontificating about different sides of issues when all they have to do is wake up and realize they are all on the same side - conservative America. As an outsider living in the country, it is painfully obvious to me that there is very little distinction between the two major political parties other than their rhetoric. The Republicans espouse right-wing beliefs and platforms and act on them. The Democrats sometimes espouse liberal left-wing beliefs but always act conservatively. I heard a great quote from Robert Novak during a post-election scrum on CNN: “[America] is a conservative country, and the fact is that John Kerry, he wouldn't even call himself a liberal." It's time for people in and outside the USA to realize that.

There are reasons why America is united through their actions as a nation in conservativism, and it boils down to the unabashed belief in capitalism as not only an economic system, but as the guiding principle of American life. If you work hard, you'll be rewarded, or at least have a fighting chance to get ahead. If don't work hard, you won’t. Anybody who can't stand on their own two feet does not deserve to stand up. Why do people in the USA work longer than anyone else in the rest of the world and take fewer vacations? Because that's what Americans do - work in pursuit of the almighty dollar. The only critics of the free market system in the USA are those who live in the ivory towers of universities and Hollywood, where the cold, hard consequences of the real world no longer apply to them.

It's also time for "liberals" in the USA to realize that if they truly believe in progressive platforms and causes, that they are going to have to start electing politicians and forming parties that actually believe and act on those ideas. America is not a two party system, it's worse: it's a one party system. If they are going to get anywhere with their ideals, they are going to have to do something about that first.

However, there was a big upside to the election this time around, thanks to all of the idiot hippies and haters who got thoroughly crushed on Election Day. To me, it was amazing how many people HATED Bush and how organized and dedicated so very many people were to get him out of office. How he still could have won is beyond me - unless you consider that every time some jackass said "Bush is a fucking moron and so is anyone who doesn't realize that" those of us who would choose Bush over Kerry didn't take it as an attack on Bush, but as an attack on ourselves. That's the key point in this election that the media has completely glossed over. People don't like to be called stupid. They will listen to an alternative point of view, but not if they are told it repeatedly ad nauseum and it is prefaced with "you are stupid and he's why ..."! Those folks took it personally and showed up to the polls!

That was only part of the reason why it was funny to me. The most hilarity came from the fact that people didn't understand or realize how little difference there was between the two candidates in the first place. To see a girl on the news holding her "Kerry/Edwards" sign in the verge of tears before the election at how angry she was at George Bush was hilarious. Thinking of that lady working to elect John Kerry, the senator in Washington who took the most special-interest money of anybody over the past twenty years, because she just didn't know any better brought me to tears - tears of laughter. It wasn't just that lady, either - thousands of some of the smartest and most influential people on our planet were doing the same thing. It was all very funny to me because most of everything I read on the Internet and otherwise from the "left" of America spoke of two things after they lost: their rage and their hate. Sorry folks, don’t need no hateration! I wish they could all take a step back and think of the last political movement based on an ideology of hate ...

I've also been wrestling with personal demons throughout this process, and I think I have grown as a person. I used to have a GeorgeWBush.com election banner on my website, which I now would like to think was more of a knee-jerk reaction to all the haters who don't like the man. Lord knows I agree with a ton of his policies because I agree with the principles behind them, but I also disagree with a lot of the execution of those policies, to speak nothing of the things he's done or might do that I disagree with completely. I still stand behind my support for his re-election, because a choice between George W. Bush and John Kerry is really no choice at all. What I am beginning to learn (something exacerbated by being in a country constantly debating itself when everyone is really on the same side) is to personally stop using labels to describe my political beliefs. This right-wing/left-wing nonsense is all bullshit. Most folks want to improve the world, so I'd like to move beyond that and start thinking in terms of how to solve problems instead of cutting the "other guys" down. Enough of this Crossfire he said/she said reductio ad absurdum, we gotta move the discussion to a higher level. Even further beyond that, the best lesson I learned from the idiots supporting Kerry is that for us all to get ahead, we gotta lose the rage and start thinking positive. THE RANT that has become so commonplace in cyberspace is really moving past its life expectancy for me. With that being said, this all might prove to be difficult since this post alone proves I'm having trouble eating my own dog food! :)