I’m getting pretty stoked about this election. Voter turnout is going to be high throughout the country and all the latest polls are indicating America is about to elect a black president. (Even Faux News, though they are still pretending McCain is gaining ground fast.)

Surprisingly, Obama is showing a small lead here in Misery. As a result, all the right-wingers I know are shitting their pants. They’ve been subjected to such a prolonged hate and fear campaign — courtesy of the right-wing noise machine — that now the true believers are experiencing a self-induced nightmare. In their minds a mysteriously-funded-elitist-black-Muslim-probably-not-even-really-a-citizen-anti-Amurkin-won’t-say-the-pledge-of-allegiance-or-wear-a-flag-lapel-pin-terrorist-sympathizer-black-Islamofascist-sleeper-agent-sworn-in-on-a-Quran-raise-your-taxes-and-give-out-welfare-Cadillacs-madrassa-educated-liberal-Democrat-uppity-negro-Socialist-possibly-the-anti-christ (OH-MY-GAWD-THE-BLACK-ANTI-CHRIST!) is about to be elected President of the United States of America!

It’s like the end-times for them, and for me, that is both sad and funny. The funny is, of course, just schadenfreude from witnessing befuddled arrogance and angry cowardice properly rewarded. I’d wager that in the last month, I’ve heard more grown men, usually men in their 50s and older, start conversations with the question “You know what scares me?” than I had previously heard in my entire life. The sad comes from the fact that there still exists a solid third of this country for which facts and truth do not exist. Whether through laziness or ignorance or just plain hatefulness, they are willing, eager even, to believe and propagate any slur, rumor, or urban legend created about their latest chosen enemy. For these people, Karl Rove style, anti-intellectual, accuse-your-opponent-of-everything-from-treason-to-witchcraft politics will always be effective.

I’m stoked because I’m optimistic the other two-thirds of America has finally woken. Seven-and-a-half years of an administration destroying both our nation’s government and reputation capped off by a nasty recession has gotten their attention. Imagine that.

UPDATE: This guy makes the exact same point better than I did right here:

The current economic meltdown, a fumbled response to Hurricane Katrina and a banner reading "Mission Accomplished" are but a few of the things that will make up Bush's legacy. But it can be argued that through his ineptitude, Bush has shaken the electorate out of their apathetic daze, and in doing so, strengthened democracy in the United States. How's that for irony?

Nail, meet hammer.