Dan Piraro’s blog has become one of my daily visits on the web, and today’s entry identifies a vital issue: the ability of Americans to vote against their own interests, and make insane choices with open eyes:

One thing I’m realistic about is the upcoming election. In a reasonable world, Obama would win in a record-breaking landslide: Bush is the least popular president in nearly 100 years, the economy is in the toilet and a finger is pressing on the flush handle, our reputation worldwide is in the gutter, gas will be $5/gallon by November, according to legal experts, our constitution is in crisis, McCain’s policies are the same as Bush’s or MORE in the direction that nailed us into our current coffin. It’s a no-brainer.

A part of me thinks Obama will win in spite of the combination of stupid, blind patriotism and racism that will account for 90% of the votes against him. But the realist in me is bracing for another close election that the Republicans can steal at the local level. I’m not an alarmist, but that would be national suicide.

If McCain wins, it will change this country for a very long time. Forget what disasters will befall our economy, our troops, our international reputation – the Supreme Court will become a fascist juggernaut for decades to come, and nothing short of an armed uprising will be able to stop them.

In my opinion (and probably Piraro’s as well), that trend began in 2000, and intensified in 2004 when the nation inexplicably said, “give me some more of that!” A lot of this goes deep back in time, and is part of human psyche; but you can’t help feeling that this alternate-reality feel-good-denial self-destructive inclination became a visible tumor writhing under the skin of society, growing to monstrous proportions, probably spurred on by the carcinogen of fear injected on 9/11, and that it is stretching the dermis of our nation so taut that it threatens to burst and… well, I could get into some pretty icky imagery here, but I haven’t even had breakfast yet.

Back to the more analytical side: Look at the economic charts before 2000, and then see where Bush took us after then. Reagan-Bush in the 80’s and early 90’s were a conservative trend that by all rights–and the true and actual votes of the 2000 election–should have continued to swing back after Clinton’s term. I know people love to ridicule Al Gore, and some roll their eyes whenever a compliment is paid to him, but despite all the no-difference talk in 2000, a look back makes it crystal clear that Gore was hands-down the far superior choice. He would have continued the trend Clinton started, handling the economic downturn of 2000 far more reasonably. He either would have prevented 9/11 with the Clinton counter-terrorism policies that the Bush administration abandoned, or he would have acted a thousand times more reasonably, focusing on bin Laden and building a new international alliance. He would have made real progress on environmental issues and perhaps we’d be well on our way to using alternative fuels and escaping our fossil-fuels dependency, and so forth. But most importantly to us back here in grim reality, he would not have gutted the Constitution, he would not have gutted the economy, he would not have made us an international pariah, he would not have started the quagmire in Iraq–in short, he would not have been the single most reprehensible “leader” in our history, and our nation would not be hurtling towards the precipice at quite so alarming a rate of speed. And yet here we are, with millions of Americans again saying, “give me four more years of that!”

I can only wonder at the proclivity of Americans to be so utterly foolish as to even consider any of this, but to me, the choice was just as crystal clear back in 2000. You had a man who was intelligent, who saw the value of the Internet back before anyone else and acted upon it, without whose support the Internet would have died stillborn, who was boldly making his cause an unpopular message of environmental prudence, who looked and talked a bit funny but was still so clearly the better candidate. And he was running against a cocky, juvenile, frat-boy-demeanor failed oilman not too long weaned from drug addiction, the first presidential candidate with a criminal record, for Christ’s sake, a smarmy, stupid, silver-spoon dunce who couldn’t speak straight, who lied so smugly he actually smirked, who attached himself to shadowy people, who used sickeningly slimy tactics against opponents in his own party, and who basely pandered to the fear and greed of people rather than to their better natures. It’s not like we couldn’t see this back in 2000, or in 2004.

McCain is not nearly as bad personally as Bush, giving him some social camouflage, but there is so much there that echoes Bush. McCain was not a draft-dodger or a drug addict, nor does he have a criminal record, nor is he as stupid or altogether pathetic as Bush is or was. But the same lack of character is there, and the same set of policies and abuses is rather brashly being presented to the American people as if they were real, viable, or even constructive courses of action for our nation to take.

There are several reasons to vote for McCain, but as Piraro pointed out, almost all of them are base: fear, greed, hatred, distrust, blind patriotism and blind partisanship.

I truly believe that this is a test for the United States of America. We are being given one last chance to make the right choice. If we fail the test, the United States of America that has existed up until this time will only accelerate in its disintegration, its transformation into something different and far less and without the heart or soul that made the country great. What would remain would be a pale, pretending shadow. If you’re thinking, “oh, they were saying stuff like that back in 2000 and 2004,” then take a look around you–we were right.

There’s no guarantee that Obama can stem the profuse bleeding and bring the nation back to health, nor that the nation won’t turn back toward self-destruction soon after he leaves office. But the choice right now is so clear it is blinding: vote for McCain and you vote for the ruin of America. Vote for Obama, and we have a good chance of making it. If that makes me sound partisan, then too bad; partisanship is not a sin if it is open-eyed and a result of attention to the truth. Nobody criticizes a policeman for being a partisan for public safety; no one questions a doctor for being a partisan of health. The question here is not why I support Obama, the question is, why doesn’t everyone.