Early and often; thoughts on US Election Day 2016

This is it, folks. US election day, 2016. My wife and I have our ballots all filled out and I'll drop them off at the polling place on my way to work.

By the end of the day, perhaps we'll know who's won the vote. Either way, there will be people shouting from the rooftops "We've made history!" And there will be others throwing stones at those people.

It'll either be our first female president (who frightens conservatives and liberals alike), or it will be the wealthy outsider-guy who says he'll clean up Washington who, you guessed it, frightens conservatives and liberals alike.

If Hillary wins, it's a win for pragmatism, lesser-of-evils thinking, a win for the old-guard Democrats who yearn to relive the glory days of the 1990s. It's a crushing blow to the Republicans who attribute the glory days of the 90s to the residual effects of Reaganomics.

If Trump wins, it's a win for demagoguery, a win for humanity's propensity to follow the loudmouths, a win in the same sense that Brexit Leave was a win.

Both sides' campaigns have been build securely on this premise: "Maybe we can win if we just ignore the other side's campaigns and shout ours louder." The overriding notion these past few months has been something akin to "s/he who shouts the loudest is right."

As I watch my baby daughter roll around on the floor, I hope we can dig ourselves out of this hole of willful ignorance that we've dug ourselves into. I hope we can build a world that is ruled less by talking points and more by intelligent discourse; less by lines-in-the-sand and more by meaningful negotiations and an understanding that making the other side's demands illegal doesn't make them disappear.

I like election days; I like watching history unfold before my eyes. I get a little thrill of excitement when a new batch of exit polls hits the media, when the electoral college counters tick inevitably towards 270. I just wish I could be more excited about what the next 4 years will bring.