One of the rules on the AZ MUSIC CAFE show, is that politics not be a part of the program.   No soapboxes for pet causes, no agenda driven content in the music.   The show is about music.   Period.    That would hopefully distinguish this from programs where artists feel compelled to pronounce their grandiosity.   As though talent with an instrument gives one wisdom and discernment regarding the affairs of the world.  Please.   Its not that I don’t have an opinion.   I have lots of them.   I just don’t want the show to be a forum on politics.   (“Its the music, stupid” … to paraphrase from an earlier election)

Having said that, it is impossible to ignore the fact that today is Election day.   So I will make a few remarks about the process only.

I decided that I would believe the reports of record turn out and voted early (not often.)  So I trundled off with coffee in hand just after 5:30 am.   I found where I was supposed to go and arrived a few minutes later.

Standing in line in the dark, you have time to think a bit.   A young man in front of me with incredibly bad morning breath, asked me how long I expected the process to take.    After I recovered my senses, I replied as politely as possible that I couldn’t see the end of the line, but given what I could see, 15-20 minutes later we should be voting, and then it was just a matter of a few minutes to actually cast the ballot.   (I hoped that he would not want to continue the conversation, as the air was still, and all I had was my cup of coffee as a shield from further attacks of his halitosis.)   Mercifully, he turned around and we resumed waiting.

When we do our next show on Sunday, there will be a new President-Elect.    I wondered while I was voting today how many people that voted expected that the winner would assume office tomorrow.    What other misconceptions exist out there.    Did they really understand the Electoral College, or did they believe that was where volunteers graduated from in order to work at the polling places.    I wondered how many first time voters like Bad Breath Bob, would become regular voters, or if this was their singular moment of hope.

I wondered what it would be like standing here 4 years from now.    What history would have been made.   What the world would look like.   I reflect now on what the world looked like in 2000.   Before 911 and before Iraq.   Before the housing run up and subsequent crackup and near collapse of the banking system.   When gas was about $1.50 per gallon.    When you could get on an airplane without being violated.

I wondered what it was like to view the world through the lenses of a 20 year old instead of through the eyes of someone whose first election was the Ford-Carter contest in 1976.

How different the world was then and how fast things have changed.   Change.  The mantra of the 2008 election.    We have focused a lot this year on what divides us.   But what unites us is that we all want things to be better.  And some are willing to do just about anything for their version of what “better” looks like to them.

I am reminded of a wise guy who told me once:  Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

I wonder if we will get what we bargained for, or if we’ll get what we deserve.