Tiffany B. Brown

a mish-mosh of stuff

But what if Obama loses?

He didn’t :-) .

By this time tomorrow, polls all along the east coast will be open and ready for citizens to cast their ballots. Roughly twelve hours later, we’ll start to get the nation’s first results in an election that is, for many reasons (starting with how f*ckin’ long ago the campaigning started), historic.

Most of the polls and projections I’ve seen has Obama squarely in the lead. But then I remember the shenanigans of the 2004 election. And I remember that people don’t always tell the truth in polls, and that poll results themselves can be flawed. And that chills me.

See, if Obama loses, I will be forced to believe one of the following scenarios:

  1. My fellow citizens like to lie to pollsters and really do support trickle-down economics, unregulated markets, the privatization of everything, and endless war;
  2. My fellow (white) citizens are so racist that they can’t vote for a black man, if it’s in their best interests; or
  3. My country is essentially a capitalist dictatorship where people “vote,” but results are subject to tampering and therefore meaningless.

None of those scenarios sit well with me — particularly as a black woman who thought it would be another 30 years before it would even be possible to elect a black president — and I’m not sure what I’d do or believe in if, somehow, this election did not go Obama’s way.

Related:

  • http://www.glencampbell.name/ Glen Campbell

    How about (d) the 8% of undecided voters finally make up their minds?

  • http://www.glencampbell.name/ Glen Campbell

    How about (d) the 8% of undecided voters finally make up their minds?

  • http://twannahines.com/ Twanna A. Hines (www.funkybrow

    It’s possible all three of those scenarios are be true. Or, possibly, none of them.

    Barack Obama is clearly the better candidate, and I hope he wins. After the 2004 election, I kind of loss faith in my ability to guess what’s on American’s minds — at least politically. I was living abroad at the moment and I remember thinking, “Hell, maybe I’m really ‘fringe’, the lunatics are running the asylum and I should just stay over here in Holland.” I came back hoping that I wasn’t alone and the uber right-wing nutjob ideology hadn’t REALLY hijacked my country. However, sometimes, I’m not 100% sure anymore. :(

  • http://twannahines.com Twanna A. Hines (www.funkybrownchick.com)

    It’s possible all three of those scenarios are be true. Or, possibly, none of them.

    Barack Obama is clearly the better candidate, and I hope he wins. After the 2004 election, I kind of loss faith in my ability to guess what’s on American’s minds — at least politically. I was living abroad at the moment and I remember thinking, “Hell, maybe I’m really ‘fringe’, the lunatics are running the asylum and I should just stay over here in Holland.” I came back hoping that I wasn’t alone and the uber right-wing nutjob ideology hadn’t REALLY hijacked my country. However, sometimes, I’m not 100% sure anymore. :(

  • tiffany

    Glen, that would fall under A, wouldn’t it? If undecided voters voted for McCain, that would indicate that they believe in what he and his party stand for, right? That disturbs me. EDIT: Actually, after re-reading what I wrote, the undecideds technically wouldn’t necessarily have “lied,” to pollsters. But they would be in favor of the very things that have landed us in a severe economic crisis and an unwinnable war that could bankrupt our country Soviet Union-in-Afghanistan style.

  • tiffany

    Glen, that would fall under A, wouldn’t it? If undecided voters voted for McCain, that would indicate that they believe in what he and his party stand for, right? That disturbs me. EDIT: Actually, after re-reading what I wrote, the undecideds technically wouldn’t necessarily have “lied,” to pollsters. But they would be in favor of the very things that have landed us in a severe economic crisis and an unwinnable war that could bankrupt our country Soviet Union-in-Afghanistan style.

  • http://mattwilcox.net/ Matt Wilcox

    If he doesn’t get in there will be riots. And rightfully so, because if he doesn’t get in there is something so fundamentally rotten with the American system that it would need that sort of action to correct.

    The world is desperate for Obama to get in.

  • http://mattwilcox.net Matt Wilcox

    If he doesn’t get in there will be riots. And rightfully so, because if he doesn’t get in there is something so fundamentally rotten with the American system that it would need that sort of action to correct.

    The world is desperate for Obama to get in.

  • http://beingamberrhea.com/ Amber Rhea

    I really don’t know what I’ll do if Obama doesn’t win. I don’t want to think about it.

  • http://beingamberrhea.com Amber Rhea

    I really don’t know what I’ll do if Obama doesn’t win. I don’t want to think about it.

  • tiffany

    I think the only other plausible explanation would be that all 8% of undecided voters decided to vote for McCain. I would find that hard to believe if it happened. I’d expect a far fairer split.

    Okay, one more plausible explanation: every pollster is wrong. And I find that an even more difficult to fathom scenario.

  • tiffany

    I think the only other plausible explanation would be that all 8% of undecided voters decided to vote for McCain. I would find that hard to believe if it happened. I’d expect a far fairer split.

    Okay, one more plausible explanation: every pollster is wrong. And I find that an even more difficult to fathom scenario.

  • http://kintespace.com/rasxlog/ Bryan Wilhite

    Obama is FAR beyond losing. The ones always close to losing are the majority of the American people. The last big loss was about 700 billion smackers.

  • http://kintespace.com/rasxlog/ Bryan Wilhite

    Obama is FAR beyond losing. The ones always close to losing are the majority of the American people. The last big loss was about 700 billion smackers.