Day zero!
In the closest thing you could ever find to a Daily Show endorsement for Kerry, after telling people to make sure they participate in our democracy and vote today, although he didn’t name names, Jon Stewart gave as good a reason as any for voting our current president out of office:
On a personal note, I’m a comedian who makes fun of what I believe to be the absurdities of our government. Make my life difficult. Make this next four years really (shitty) for me, so that every morning all we can do is come in and go, “Eh, Madonna’s doing some kabbalah thing. Wanna do that?” I’d like that. I’m tired.
That’s right: make our comedians work for their living.
Now if by chance you’re like me and living in New York, or maybe California or any other state where Kerry will likely win by a large margin and therefore you think your vote doesn’t count, I implore you — get to the polls anyway and cast that ballot. Who knows how tight this election will really be. What I do know is that much of the negative feelings people have toward Bush started simply because he wasn’t humble enough to accept that whether he legally won election in 2000 or not, overall more people voted for Al Gore. Had he expressed some humility or not immediately started governing as if he was representing the will of all the people, but rather truly tried to unite and not divide and search for compromise, chances are he wouldn’t be quite as hated by so many as he is now. It is far from impossible, and some are even predicting it as likely, for Kerry to win the presidency but lose the popular vote to Bush. While this would be a better result than vice-versa, it would still lead to that 50% of this country who didn’t vote for Kerry feeling ripped off, just like the rest of us have for the past four years.
So saying that your vote doesn’t count is simply bullshit. From an emotional and mental standpoint, from the outlook of how the results of this election will affect the morale of the population, every single vote in every single state counts.
If you haven’t voted yet, what the hell are you waiting for. Stop reading blogs (this one included) and stop wasting time on the internet. Get to your polls. Haven’t you heard? There may be a line. And all of us out here in the worldwideinformationsuperhighwayinternetweb will still be here when you get back.
And don’t worry; Stewart’s just kidding. There’s very little chance of Kerry being a perfect president. The Daily Show and other political comedy will continue to reign supreme as long as we govern ourselves because that person at the top will always be human.
Out of Focus 