VOTE!

Get it?

VOTE!

This Happened Yesterday!

The election cycle is over for me.

Early voting works wonders.

Some Personal Reflections on the Election

From an old political science major:

Finally! It's over. Time for some personal reflections on the just (sort of) completed elections.

Please note, I am talking, in general, about politicians on both sides. It depends sometimes on the particular politician, of course. Some are generally quality individuals with integrity and empathy. But most fail from time to time and the whole election process just plain sucks! So here are some of my thoughts.

1) It is hard to remain civil about the incivility of the election process, ads, smears, slams, etc. But I am trying. By turning off the political ads.

2) Why, oh why do we have to portray the opposition candidates as "un-American" or worse? What about democracy don't we understand? It is a national dialogue on priorities, ideas, directions. It is the opportunity to state our opinions and work toward healthy compromise and movement. Instead we attack individuals and personalities. Not something new in this election cycle- it's been around since Adams vs. Jefferson- but it can be very disturbing.

3) The press- on both sides. Actually, the broadcast media on both sides has taken the process and often placed it in jeopardy or even a parody of itself. Like attack ads, partisan media is not new- it has been a staple of American politics since the beginning. But now, in our age of 24/7 news cycles, it just keeps piling higher and deeper. I have stopped watching any of the news outlets for the elections. Maybe I won't go back.

4) Spin, spin, spin- until you fall down dizzy from all the spin. It's almost like those playground "carousels" we had when I was a kid. I was on one time and got so dizzy and nauseous that I never got on one again. Almost like the elections. Three weeks ago I also stopped listening to public radio's endless replaying of the state candidate debates, interviews, etc. Not because I didn't want to hear, but often the spin and rancor and name calling and on and on was just too much.

5) Do these politicians REALLY believe the crap they spew forth? Really? The incredible inconsistencies, faux pas, inane, hateful and just plain stupid remarks that are made seems to indicate a disconnect in many brains- a broken connection between logic and compassion and understanding and intelligence and the mouth.

6) Voter fraud and voter ID issues were sad to watch and were actually scary. For something that has been, for all practical purposes a non-issue for the past 50 years, it sure became an issue. Set up a basic system for FREE voter ID cards and it will make more sense. The right to vote has been a hard-fought battle for our entire history. In colonial America I would not have been allowed to vote- I don't own any land- and live in a rental town house. LESS THAN 100 years ago, women could not vote in the United States. A government "of the people, by the people and for the people" needs to have voting by as many people as possible. This has been a dangerous movement!!

7) The other really big issue is that of all the corporate-type money flowing so freely into both parties. It is almost obscene! If our national political health depends so fully on money with strings attached, maybe we aren't all that healthy. No, I don't have a good and affordable answer, but it is dangerous. It is called a plutocracy, a government controlled by the wealthy and they spend a lot of money buying our politicians and our votes.

8) What about the results? Well, all spin aside, it probably only matters in the short-term as this is often what happens in the mid-term elections. In spite of the hype by the press, this was no more or no less important than most other mid-term elections. It is how our democracy works- for better and worse. Shifts in power, movements across the middle-of-the-road point are common. While there seems to be a greater polarity and anger in this mid-term, maybe we can still hope that a certain amount of deal making is possible. We will see.

A (Very) Brief Respite Ahead

November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar.
There are 57 days remaining until the end of the year.

This year here in the good old US of A it is the mid-term Election Day.

SO....  

By tomorrow at this time, the ads will be gone, we will have an idea of what the arguments will now be in Congress, on the 24/7 news channels, and all over the place on Facebook.

Ah, but today is also 735 days until the 2016 presidential election.

Therefore, by tomorrow we will begin to hear all the reasons we should vote one way or another for whatever candidate is currently the font runner for either party.

No rest for the weary.




But that is not an excuse for today.

A Wonder of an Election

I went to vote yesterday after supper, got the sticker and put it in my journal.

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I then posted the picture on Facebook with the following thought:

The 11th time I have voted in a national election. It is always an amazing feeling. Sadly I have been on the winning side only three times so far- 1992,1996,2008. I hope to make two in a row.

Needless to say, I did. At 10:12 (CST) last evening Obama was declared the winner. I am now 4 for 11. What that means for me is that in the past 40 years (since 1972, the first time I could vote in a Presidential election), I have lived with the president I voted for only 12 years. That's only 30% of the time.

I will be blogging more in the next few days about last evening's events and some of my reactions and thoughts over the next number of days. This is, I believe, a critical time in our nation's history. How we all handle it will have more to say about our future than just who happened to have been elected.

For tonight, though, I relax in the wonder of the re-election of Barack Obama, our first African-American President.

Today is THE Day

“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man
for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison
men because they are different from other men. ”
― Lyndon B. Johnson

For Tuesday a Day Ahead

Tomorrow, at long last, is election day 2012. Don't complain about the results if you don't get out and vote.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt

I Am Voting "No!"

NOTE: The ads on the right sidebar are automatically generated by AdSense.
If they support either of these amendments, they do not reflect my opinions.

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Here in Minnesota we have two ballot referenda for constitutional amendments. I am voting No! on both.

First is the marriage amendment to change the Minnesota constitution to limit the idea of "marriage" as between one man and one woman. It's main purpose is to keep gay marriage from becoming a reality. All the traditional reasons for the amendment have been passed around. Marriage is under attack, they say, and this is the way to protect it.  Don't ask me how that will happen. I have no idea. This will not stop domestic violence, probably the greatest threat to healthy marriages. It will not do anything but allow people to get married. How that harms marriage is beyond me. Don't get me started on the "Biblical" definitions of marriage- they didn't exist in any way, shape, or form as we understand the idea of marriage today. The legal and social problems faced by a gay couple are daunting. This will only make it worse.

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The second referendum is to make government-issued photo IDs required for voting. It is very simple in my mind. In 1965 the Voting Rights Act was passed (and renewed in 2006 for 25 years.) At the time, President Johnson said:

This law covers many pages, but the heart of the act is plain. Wherever, by clear and objective standards, States and counties are using regulations, or laws, or tests to deny the right to vote, then they will be struck down.

Voting is a right, not a privilege. We have come a long way since the colonial era when only white, property-owning men could vote. Thank God for that. Let's not step back almost 50 years to find some new-fangled, higher-tech way of denying people the right to vote. Voter fraud is so rare it would probably do as much good to pass a law against extra-terrestrials voting.

I feel very strongly about the freedoms we have. Any time we begin to find ways to restrict them, we are hurting ourselves and our future. I hope my fellow voters of Minnesota can see into the heart of these two issues and step away from the exclusionary attitude.

On Not Taking a Vote

When you put rights to a vote, the minority always loses.

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey earlier this year vetoed a same-sex marriage act saying it should go to a vote. Just like, he said, many people would have preferred a referendum in the south in the 50s and 60s instead of the violence that went along with winning the civil rights of African-Americans.

Come again?

Yes, it might have avoided violence, at that time, but if that were the only way for minorities to win their rights, we would still be living in the Jim Crow era. BY DEFINITION, the minority would not have enough votes to pass such a law without a law that allowed them to vote in the first place. Such a law would be tough to pass without a fight. Like we had in the 50s and 60s.

With a same-sex marriage vote, the number of the minority is even less than the minority number of African-Americans 60 years ago. Of course it will lose.

Another commentator I heard say that the same-sex marriage debate has shifted faster than any major issue he has seen in modern times. Republican pollsters and some commentators are even saying that this is an issue that may find the GOP on the wrong side of history if they don't see what is happening. It would be very sad to see the anti-same-sex side take to the ballot box to force the minority to comply when it may very well be that these state constitutional amendments may turn out to be as relevant as the anti-intermarriage laws of 100 years ago are today.