"What I can't figure out and what really interests me is why today feels different."

Wrote Annie C in the comments to my post, earlier this morning, "Today, I will reveal something that I have kept secret for 3 years — who got my vote for President, here in swing-state Wisconsin, in 2016." I'd said, "I've had my reasons for keeping my vote secret, but this morning, I woke up with the thought that I now have a very good reason to reveal it, because I have something specific to say, and I want to recommend something, and knowing how I voted will reinforce my recommendation."

What's different today is that yesterday Nancy Pelosi announced that there will be a vote in the House on Thursday on whether to "affirm" the impeachment inquiry. As you may be able to tell from my post on the subject — "Maybe they hope it will be voted down! Suddenly, House Democrats want a formal vote on impeachment" — I would very much like to see a "no" vote. As I've said many times on this blog, I think election results deserve respect, Democrats have failed to accept that they lost an election and that those who won deserve their victory and that those who were disappointed should be focusing on winning the next election, not undoing the results of the election they lost.

Democrats need to turn back from the precipice. They need to give up the drama and hysteria about Trump and show that they are more stable and responsible than Trump. A "no" vote on the impeachment proceedings will only happen if Democrats — some of them — have the sense to say "no."

I don't normally try to persuade anyone of anything here on this blog. I'm a distanced observer, a natural-born inhabitant of political territory I call Cruel Neutrality. I'm averse to politics, but I like to write about the political scene in my homeland, America — Wisconsin, America. The big swing state that might determine the outcome of the next election. And I might be the biggest blogger here. I once was. Who even keeps track now? Blogging is past its prime, or so they say. But there could be a renaissance of blogging. Blogging is independent and personal — blogging that is real blogging. Which is what I do.

So if anyone wants to listen to me, I have one thing I want to add, as I choose to attempt to persuade Democrats to vote "no" on the affirmation of impeachment inquiry. I want to tell what I have held secret for 3 years: I voted for Hillary Clinton.

I could not stand Hillary Clinton. I didn't want to disclose my vote because I hated having to vote for her. I didn't want to say it even though I endure heavy social consequences here in Madison, Wisconsin for not dispelling the possibility that I voted for Donald Trump. Hillary did not deserve my vote, and I did not want to show any public support for her. She did not earn my vote. She got it by default, because I could not vote for Donald Trump.

I could not vote for Donald Trump because the whole idea was completely weird and chaotic. That can't happen. You've seen that video montage of all the celebrities and politicians saying, "Donald Trump is not going to be President"...



That's how my brain felt on election day: No freaking way!!!

I like when things feel normal and practical and realistic. Remember "no drama Obama"? That's what I'd like to see from the government. Stability. Good sense. Regularity.

Could you just do that, Democrats? Is that too easy for you?! Do you admire Donald Trump? Are you trying to beat him at his game? Chaos. Weirdness. You pathetic imitators! His chaotic weirdness should have kept him from getting elected in the first place, but what happened happened. And now he is President, so he's inherently less weird and chaotic. There's the continuing strangeness of his being President. I still fall into a reverie now and then: How the hell did that happen? On perhaps 6 occasions, I have watched video of the election night coverage — the real-time recording that goes on for hours — as if to drive it home into my resistant brain that it really did happen. It wasn't just a crazy dream.

The people who voted for Trump are real. They are not despicable or "deplorable." They are voters in a democracy, and democracy — crazy though it is — is our beloved system here in the United States of America. We're wedded to it, for better or worse, and I'm trying to make the best of it. There's some wild excitement and there's some serious work to be done. I don't want any more chaos than is needed to claw through the days to the next election. Let's have an election, not a kooky congressional extravaganza. I need Pelosi and Schiff and these various Congress critters to shrink back into their place and let the presidential candidates have the stage. Let's be normal.

I am not a Trump fan. I voted against the guy. I have voted in 12 presidential elections, and in 9 of them, I voted for the Democrat. In the 21st century, there have been 5 presidential elections, and I've voted for the Democrat in 3 of them. There have been 2 Presidents in the 21st century who have won twice and neither of them did I vote for twice. I am a true swing voter (in a swing state). All I want is a very competent, reliable, sensible, good person who can handle the presidency. I don't want your ugliness and hysteria. I don't want to see my fellow citizens cranked up into a frenzy. The very reasons I voted against Trump are getting cooked up into reasons to vote for him — by you, you idiots.

But this week, you have a chance to turn back from your crazy ways. It won't take all of you. Just some of you. Please, House Democrats, please vote "no." Stand down and let us get back to the 2020 presidential campaign. Surely, some of you still believe that elections matter and elections must be the norm in America. The rest of you seem as though you've already given up and ceded the 2020 election to Donald Trump. That's how I will interpret a "yes" vote on the impeachment, a disclosure of your consciousness of 2020 loserdom.