Today is the big day.  Either John McCain or Barack Obama (sorry 3rd parties) will become the next President of the United States.  As I said earlier, history will be made one way or another.

As far as elections go, I’ve never really understood how people can align themselves with a given party.  Or how one party is labeled as liberal and the other conservative when on many issues, the exact opposite seems to be true.  I think the Political Compass has it correct that the idea of “right” and “left” are much too broad and simplistic.

I don’t even know how to qualify myself and I definitely do not agree with any party on all issues.  Strategists from both parties repeatedly claim that most people who claim to be independents are not actually all that independent and tend to vote a given party most of the time anyway.  If that’s true, I suppose I’m the exception as I truly have no interest in rubber-stamping any party for any position in any election.

I have taken numerous tests to see how I line up with various candidates (such as glassbooth.org).  I think the most interesting thing about those tests is to see the issues I do NOT agree with for each candidate.  I really don’t see how anyone can find a candidate that they agree with on all issues.  Blind devotion to a given party just seems bizarre to me.