This October is different. It just feels different. It's the calm before the storm of change that's thundering down on America.
We're not happy with this country and the eight years that has ruined millions of lives be it the elderly couple who's 401k is sinking in front of their eyes to the widow clutching the picture of husband who never came back from Iraq.
For all his quarks, Ron Paul was on to something. It's more than change - it's a revolution.
This is America calling - and we want our country back.
Oh yes, this time things are going to be different; I've never been so convinced. Perhaps I should elaborate on why this wave of relief has swept over me.
My father is a great man though not without his skeletons. He hasn't always made the right decisions in life financially, in interpersonal relationships, or even to me. That doesn't change the fact that he's my father and I respect him even when I don't agree with him.
He's a life-long Republican, the base vote that McCain/Palin embrace. He worked for the Forest Service for over 30 years and was not immune to the Clinton administration clamping down on timber permits and changing the way he felt about the nine hours he spent everyday in the office. He watched as Clinton (with the perceived nudge from Gore) announced two million acres of prime, uninhabited land in Utah as a national monument, a vast empty space where nothing resides. Hundreds of potential jobs from mining the Andalex complex were never realized and the community suffered. Friends moved away, buildings closed, hope faded.
He lost his faith in a Democrat ever doing something right. They'd taken away nearly everything from him and given him nothing in return. To him, hope wasn't blind optimism - hope was a four letter word.
Flash forward to today. He voted for Bush (twice) and sung the praises of the Straight Talk Express. To me, he was simply a statistic in McCain's soon to be victory in Utah.
And yet, change is in the air - revolution is in the air...
And it begins and ends with a lack of judgement that calls into question why anyone would conceive voting for the Maverick and Maverick 2.0.
On our weekly phone call, without prompting, he proclaimed Palin as 'the biggest dunce I've ever seen'. He watched the presidential debate and bit his lip as McCain ignored Obama. It swayed him back and forth but didn't tip him. He watched Palin manuever her way through talking point after talking point while never once sticking to the topic at hand or providing anything of substance. Again he swayed, further than before, wondering if he was on the right side.
And then today came - and the rope snapped.
He watched as his stocks tanked to new lows. He watched as McCain ignored his financial plight and painted Obama as an outsider, not one of us.
'I'm sick of this shit and I'm not going to take it anymore.'
'I'm pro-life yet it doesn't matter. We need more rights for gun owners, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that my life is falling apart and McCain doesn't give a shit.'
With that, he spoke the words I never thought I'd hear him utter: 'I'm voting for Obama because I don't want to die this way.'
You see, this election isn't about how you feel - it's about what you know.
He knows that we are on a downward spiral and he doesn't want to go for the ride. He knows that he'll have to unretire and do a job that he doesn't have the energy nor enthusiasm for.
He knows that if we don't change, the path has already been cleared. It leads to nowhere.
These are the people that McCain has turned his back on. These are the people he is counting on to bolster his vote count and put him in office.
These are the people who, on November 4th, will deliver his defeat and place him in history as the man who united America.
The revolution's here - and we have John McCain to thank.